Elections 5th May – The fightback begins

After two weeks pounding the mean and not so mean streets of Aylesbury where District & Town Council elections take place tomorrow the fear of cutbacks to services people value is palpable, the fear voters have for their ability to earn a living and for their children’s potential being realised is obvious. For since WWII every British Government has at least held out the promise that life will be better for the next generation and their children. However this Tory led coalition is holding out no such stall – Headed up by a slick marketing man they are applying the Hershey Bar technique. We are going to give it a shiny new wrapper, make it smaller and charge you more for less. This of course applies to the new ConDem army of the disposed, workers and pensioners who actually pay tax not non-Doms or Tory Tax exiles or the powerful lobbies funded by offshore companies.

For the truth is that this strange Coalition running the UK has rewritten the rule book. Forget Election manifestos and promises – the coalition of the Conservative Party which didn’t win the election and the Lib Dems who most definitely lost the election has a totally new agenda from the one their supporters voted for, the Conservatives have abandoned conservatism and the Lib-Dems have abandoned liberalism while their leaders lead them on a mongrel course of untried, untested and unproven radical policies which nobody voted for at breakneck speed – frequently falling over themselves in the process.





In the elections tomorrow voters are urged to show Cameron and Clegg that they can't carry on with policies which have no public backing. Labour today released a document detailing the divisive policies which the Tories and Lib Dems are pursuing without a mandate: No mandate for NHS reorganisation; No mandate for police cuts; No mandate for VAT rise; No mandate for their squeeze on middle-income families; No mandate for abolishing EMAs and Future Jobs Fund or trebling tuition fees. Last year the Tories fell short of a majority in the General Election, unable to command the support of the British people for their right-wing agenda. Since then, rather than proposing reform that commands consensus, David Cameron's Tory-led Government has attempted to force through right-wing policies for which they have no mandate.



I’ve heard from so many people on the doorsteps who are deeply concerned about what this government’s plans will mean for them and for their families. People are worried - about the future of local services like schools and sure start, about how much damage the government’s ‘reforms’ will do to our NHS, about how they’ll make ends meet in retirement if they have to wait longer for their state pension. And they’re worried about what this government will mean for the next generation: £9,000 university fees, the EMA scrapped and 1 in 5 young people out of work.

Let’s send a message to the Con-Dem government that we deserve better than this:

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/sendamessage

Tomorrow, voters across much of the country go to the polls to elect the people who will run their local councils and, in Wales and Scotland, the Assembly and the Parliament. Every vote for Labour tomorrow is a vote against this Tory-led government’s unfair cuts.



As Cameron, Clegg and Osborne cut from Westminster; it is those people in local councils and in the Scottish and Welsh governments who will have to pick up the pieces as their budgets are slashed. Already we’ve seen local services squeezed as local decision-makers are forced to pass on the cuts handed down from the Tories in Westminster.



By voting Labour, you can help to make sure local councillors and the Scottish and Welsh governments do everything they can to limit the damage done by these vicious Tory cuts. By voting Labour, you can help send a message to this Tory-led government that their cruel cuts are wrong, and there is a better, fairer way. Help us send this government a message, by emailing your friends and family to let them know why you think it’s important to vote Labour tomorrow.



See also;

http://www.aylesburylabour.org.uk

http://www.facebook.com/aylesburylabourparty

http://twitter.com/#!/aylesburylabour

My Blog Awards

DaithaiC in all too typical pose

Blogging is often seen as a lonely furrow but I don’t know how. Through the excellent London Blogger’s Meetup I have met many of my contemporaries at the edge of Citizen Journalism and not met a lonely soul amongst them. People often ask how do you find the time. Why? Nobody asks people how they find time to go to the hairdresser, play golf, go to happy clappy churches, pubs, concerts, Rugby clubs, or work late at the office destroying human lives. Why pick on Bloggers? In fact Bloggers are altruistic, edgy, interesting people with something to share. They also represent Freedom from the Press – an important concept as our media gets taken over by malevolent vested interests with far from hidden agenda.



Sure there are the strange ones in this unfiltered land. I don’t do rants or attempt character assassination as life is short and we owe it to ourselves and others to behave with decency. But Internet land is full of Blobs of Bile who are like demented alcoholics transferring their own self loathing onto others. Then there are dark obsessive’s out there. There is the sad sex stuff largely generated by the second biggest industry in the US. I did a short Blog in support of Brooke Magnanti better known as by her blogging nom de plume “Belle de Jour” and sure enough in piled the prurient. Then there are the wacko conspiracy theorists that seem to always end up in the cul-de-sac of anti Semitism. So for the short piece I did on Gerry Rafferty when he died (Catholic, Irish father, Scottish mother) in piled the searches *Gerry Rafferty Jewish?*. Until the Saddo Firewall is invented leave them to it I say.

So before presenting my Blog Awards this is time to reflect on the success of the Daithai C Blog. First what would I do differently? Well not have a stupid name for a start which means nothing to readers – my name in Gaelic but spelt slightly wrongly so as to make it easy to register on bookmarking and repeater sites! Seemed clever at the time! Also Blogs tend to be specialist to align with readers and advertisers but this one at its kindest must be described as non-specialist! It covers my first love Architecture but also Travel, Transport, Politics and Irish affairs, and then some! It started off in 2007 because I was curious and ignorant about blogging and was fed up being in conversations which I didn’t quite understand.



So I took some travel guides I had done and slapped then on to see what would happen, the first one being the Ibis Moussafir in Marrakech in August 2007. Now over 550 contributions later it has been something of a phenomenon. Over this weekend alone over 2,000 people will have read something from the Blog. It is followed on Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, Multiply and much more. It is referenced, blogrolled, backlinked and quoted on many other sites. And as I believe in the concept of an open Internet there are no copyright or ownership claims on the site, all the material is freely available to link and quote. It has reached not just the mainstream but places at the very end of the known world such as Ulan Bator and Wolverhampton.



So in the principle of caring and sharing and inspired by my Blog Buddy MuMu Daithai C now makes his very first Blog Awards on to Blogs which I like, reference and which keep me going. Thanks again for all your encouragement, comments, feedback and kind words of support over the years.

Here are the lucky winners of the DC’s inaugural Lovely Blog award.




1. http://www.missus-emm.com/index.html: Missus Emm; A South African with a passion living in London and being a citizen of the world.

2. http://www.thegirlinthecafe.com Ingrid is Dutch, an old bloggy buddy was living in London, is obsessed with Bill Nighy and captures the zeitgeist of Cafe Society in her always stylish blog with her own wonderful photography. She has now relocated back to Holland but we look forward to The Girl still being part of our life.

3. http://www.photopol.com Póló is an inhabitant of my home town of Dear Dirty Dublin and a genuine authority on much of interest. Photopol started off as a photo blog but now you will find history, politics, a religious (sic) blog and even a Gaelic language blog, An Cnagaire! (The Knocker)

Now each winner can pass it on to 3 other blogs…Enjoy!



And for the versatile blog award:

1. http://quiz.eblana.eu/ A Parisian phenomenon! My buddy Páraic Maguire is Mr Quiz in Paris and runs the best little Pub Quiz in Paris at The Green Linnet, 8 avenue Victoria, 75004 Paris (metro Hôtel de Ville or Châtelet) every Wednesday, 9.30 pm. It is a phenomenon in a land where such things are unknown and the Quiz like the site is in both English and French.

2. http://london-underground.blogspot.com/ Annie Mole’s single minded obsession with what is going on under London.

3. http://torytroll.blogspot.com/ Adam Bienkov’s on the money London political Blog which has broken many major stories.

4. http://mumugb.blogspot.com/ MuMu’s perspective on being a French Yummy Mummy who loves living in London but finds the natives strange!

5. http://secondaryadventures.blogspot.com/ The iPad Polyanna of Pimlico is the daughter of MuMu the aforementioned Yummy Mummy and both writes and perceives beyond her tender years.

6. http://www.smileforlondon.com A stylish site by creative people who are bringing art, the web and media together in new and exciting ways.

7. http://whatnottodoinloveandbusiness.com/ Sherrod’s beautiful site and stories. Great look and feel and does what it says on the label.



Now you guys need to pass the award to 7 other blogs and say 7 things about you that we don't know about you yet!

So in the spirit of this enterprise here are seven things you may not know about DaithaiC although the clues are in the Blogs!





1. I have Adolph Hitler to thank for being Irish
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/moonlight-sonata_14.html

2. James Joyce was a neighbour
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/06/james-joyce-and-me.html

3. I made basic mistakes in trying to chat up a Princess
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-not-to-make-first-impression.html

4. I organised the Boomtown Rats first concert
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/bob-geldof-and-me.html

5. I shovelled concrete with a descendant of the last Crusader King of Jerusalem
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/01/lady-miranda.html

6. I have a Great Uncle buried in the Ainse on the Hindenburg line
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/towards-somme-personal-journey.html

7. I lived in Baggotonia around the corner from Raglan Road
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-raglan-roag.html

Captain SKA - Liar Liar

Dark days have arrived in Britain. The coalition government and their toxic flotilla of cuts are ruthlessly hacking away jobs, damaging vulnerable lives and chipping away at the very fabric of our society. We cannot afford to stand by and let this country sail towards a future of inequality.

Fear Not! Captain SKA and his ship have arrived to fight this coalition, but more crew members are urgently required, there is strength in numbers.
Pass this video on to other potential shipmates.

Happy Sailing

Captain SKA

https://twitter.com/#!/CaptainSKA

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_164608643557642&ap=1

http://www.myspace.com/thecaptainska

Paul O Grady tells it how it is



Paul O'Grady sounds off at George Osborne and the rest of the ConDems for the cuts made to public spending on his live television show.

Bring on the new Battle of Britain!

Ed & David Miliband

Ed Miliband is the new Labour leader; it has been announced at a special conference in Manchester. It's official - the name of Britain's next Prime Minister who will have to rebuild the country after the half cock slash and burn decisions of the Demolition Coalition is Ed Miliband! Bring on the Battle - the sooner we tear the unprincipled LibCon coalition of opportunism apart the less lives will be destroyed! We don’t want a Britain fit for millionaires, alleged Bankers and other assorted spivs!

I must be honest; I have not been on a winning streak lately. I supported another Ed, Ed Balls for Labour Party Leader and Oonagh King as Labour Candidate for Mayor of London - Ed Miliband and Ken Livingstone respectively were the winners of the contests. Nevertheless this is the first Labour leadership election since 1994 and is a vital part of the renewal of the Labour Party and the critical stocktaking which the Party has to perform after 13 transformational years in government.

Ed will be a strong leader for our Party and lead the fight against Tory plans for cuts that will devastate our public services. He's not just a fearless leader to fight the Tories; Ed is a strong supporter of trade unions. We've reached the end of months of campaigning and, this afternoon, we start to write the next chapter of this party's and this country's history. Much is being made that Ed Miliband gained a narrow victory over his brother David due to Trade Union support. This snide campaign denigrates the democratic nature of the Labour Party and the huge sense of engagement that Party Members and affiliated Trade Unions had in the election where one third each of the votes were cast by MP’s & MEP’s and Constituency Labour Parties (Clp’s), Members and Trade Unions and Affiliates.



So for instance in my case there was a full debate at my Clp who supported David Miliband, I also cast my individual Member’s vote where I could give my preference votes to the candidates and ditto on my vote as a member of an affiliated Trade Union. Whereas my Union recommended a candidate I was free to ignore this (I did!) and all votes were returned to the Independent Electoral Reform Commission to count so the result was unimpeachable. So the mischievous accusations that Sayeeda Warsi and others are making are wrong – this was an organised and regenerative leadership campaign with over 60 joint hustings by the 5 candidates which had real debate, real involvement and real choice. The results, round by round, were;

http://www2.labour.org.uk/votes-by-round

ABBOTT, Diane 7.42 0 0 0
BALLS, Ed 11.79 13.23 16.02 0
BURNHAM, Andy 8.68 10.41 0 0
MILIBAND, David 37.78 38.89 42.72 49.35
MILIBAND, Ed 34.33 37.47 41.26 50.65

We can be proud that in every corner of Britain, people are joining the Labour Party as members and supporters and getting ready for the fight ahead. Since the May General election Labour has over 32,000 new member join.


The Labour Party Conference at G-MEX Manchester - The former Central Railway Station

Ed Miliband beat brother David by the wafer thin margin of 50.65% to 49.35% after second, third and fourth preference votes came into play. Ed Balls was third, Andy Burnham fourth and Diane Abbott last in the ballot of MPs, members and trade unionists. Mr Miliband, 40, replaces acting leader Harriet Harman in the contest triggered by the resignation of Gordon Brown.

He paid tribute to each of his fellow candidates in turn and told the conference: "Today we draw a line under this contest and move forward united as a team." The Milibands are an interesting family. Of Russian Jewish descent their philosopher father’s remains rest under the watchful eye of Karl Marx in a corner of Highgate cemetery in north London. 12 yards or so from Marx's famous statue and tomb lies a small square stone. "Writer Teacher Socialist" reads the simple inscription. Ralph Miliband was one of Britain's foremost political theoreticians, an academic of world renown. And he was proud to proclaim himself a Marxist. He often told the story of being discharged in 1945 after his wartime service in the Navy where his CO said “good luck and make sure you don’t vote Labour Miliband.” In 1945 Labour won the British General Election with a landslide.

Ralph Miliband died in 1994, a few weeks before Tony Blair took over the Labour Party. By then he could see, with great unease, both his sons embarking on careers within what soon become known as New Labour - David advising Tony Blair, and Ed in the other camp, working for Gordon Brown. Ralph Miliband was not a Marxist in the Marxist-Leninist sense. He was no fan of the Soviet dictatorships and one-party states. Nor did he believe in violent revolution to overthrow capitalism. In crude terms he was neither a Stalinist nor a Trot. Yet he was deeply sceptical about whether Parliament would ever do much to emancipate the working class. Miliband was convinced instead that progress would depend on activity outside Parliament, through trade unions and other protest groups liberating themselves through radical activity.

For more on how Communism was born in London see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/red-flag.html

In the longer term, the question is how Labour goes about renewing itself in preparation for the next election. There’ll be a second opportunity to ask the questions it could be asking now, once there’s a leader in place. There is a huge democratic deficit at the heart of British politics today. The May 2010 General Election resulted in the LibCon Coalition of the Conservative Party who didn’t win the election and the Liberal Democrats who most definitely lost the election and whose promise of changing the “Face of British Politics” turned out to be a busted flush. Since then the public has been treated to a drip, drip, drip of spending cuts and tax raises based on slash and burn policies which were never put to the electorate. It is now clear that under the guise of “fiscal responsibility” what is happening is an ideologically driven attack on State services and the whole concept of “Society.” For David Cameron’s Big Society read Bogus Society.


Tony Blair - winner of 3 General Elections

So the huge achievements of the Labour Governments which ruled a successful and prosperous Britain for 13 years are now being sneered at – Cool Britannia is being supplanted by the Demolition Coalitions Cruel Britannia.

The Demolition Coalition and the Labour Leadership Campaign has made the UK electorate realise why Labour is different. With its roots in the struggles for ordinary people’s rights by the Trade Union Movement and mutual self help by the Co-Operative Society it is set apart from the shallow opportunism of other parties and is the only political movement which can bring fairness and growth to Britain. As the outcome of the last election and the destructive experimentation of the Demolition Coalition have shown the Lib Dems were not an alternative to the overweening selfishness of the Tories. So let the New Battle of Britain commence for the hearts and minds of the British Electorate and for a society committed to fairness and opportunity.


Harriet Harman - Acting Labour Leader

Even in the 5 short months since the General Election the swing in the national mood has been remarkable with Labour without a permanent leader now level pegging in the polls and Lib Dem supporters feeling betrayed. As the events of the credit Crunch and the Banking Meltdown have shown the party which represents those who sell their honest Labour is the source of honest values in society. Let the new Battle of Britain commence with the first major engagement being the London Mayoral Election of 2012, if the Coalition of Millionaires has not been consumed by its own contradictions before then.

As Ed Miliband said to the Labour Conference in Manchester; "My responsibility is to work every hour of every day, with a united team, to get David Cameron out of Downing Street as soon as possible."



The Labour Leadership Candidates.

I never voted Tory before ……

New ConDem Cabinet - 23 Millionaires, 23 White, 0 Black, 1 Asian, 26 Men, 4 Women. 70% went to Oxbridge.... Can they really afford a 5% pay cut – the rest of us can’t!

ConDemNation

Farewell to Gordon Brown a decent man never seduced by the trappings of office. We now have the novel ConDemNation headed by a LibCon coalition of opportunism – time will tell how this will fare but at the next election the LibDems will cease to exist – people will never vote Liberal to get Conservative again. The struggle for a Decent Fairer Britain continues and the impetus for this will never come from those with a sense of entitlement born of inherited wealth or position or who live off the labour of others. Never will, never has. La Luta Continua!

Here, in a DC Blog exclusive, is the first exclusive picture of the New Lib Con Pact Cabinet featuring;



Stockbroker’s son David Cameron late of Eton and The Bullingdon Club, Oxford.

Joanna Lumley, Minister for Toothy Grins and skewering little men.

Nick Clegg, Banker’s son, former Young Conservative and aide to Sir. Leon Brittain as European Commissioner. His wife, Miriam González Durántez, is the daughter of a Spanish Senator and was an aide to Chris Patten in Brussels.

Labour MP Stephen Pound summed up the happy LibCon marriage of convenience best;

Lib Dems entering government with the Tories will be

"like vegetarians who've got jobs at McDonald's - they'll be chewed up and spat out."

Forgive us for the Tories!

The Tory Party: defending the rich and attacking the poor since 1678. Put please forgive us Irish for we are responsible for them – even the term Tory comes from the Gaelic word for a Highwayman or Robber!



The word derives from the Middle Irish word tóraiche; modern Irish tóraí: outlaw, robber, from the Irish word tóir, meaning "pursuit", since outlaws were "pursued men". It was originally used to refer to an Irish outlaw and later applied to Confederates or Royalists in arms. The term was thus originally a term of abuse, "an Irish rebel", before being adopted as a political label in the same way as Whig.

Historically, the term Tory has been applied in various ways to supporters of the British monarchy. The term was applied particularly to the isolated bands of guerrillas resisting Cromwell's nine-month 1649–1650 campaign in Ireland, who were allied with Royalists through treaty with the Confederate Irish Parliament, signed at Kilkenny in January 1649.


Mobbing the Tories - print from a 1921 history of the United States

Britain must not journey back to the past on May 6th

There has been much negative campaigning in the British General Election and playing the blame game on the past. Politics is a bit like running a restaurant – because people can cook their one dish they then think they can run their own place. However as many have found out reality is a harsh teacher.

The contrast between this global recession and the early Nineties is graphic. Then mortgages were at 14.6% and the then Chancellor, the lamentable Norman Lamont said unemployment was a “price well worth paying.” His “special advisor” was one David Cameron who was with him when he led the country into the unmitigated disaster of Black Wednesday.


The last time the Stockbroker's son got near the economy

The Conservatives are now headed by a troika of Old Etonians, Dave Cameron, Gideon Osborne & Boris Johnson, and with their MP’s being 64% the product of private schools The Tory Boys and Gals want to play Tuck Shop with the country again. This is no time to let amateurs born with silver spoons learn on the job while looking after their “own kind” and playing PR lip service to a “Big Society” – at the back of it all are the Thatcherites who still believe there is no such thing as Society!



Even Sir Reginald Sheffield’s photogenic daughter does not make the Tories an electable government. We all remember the dark days under Thatcher. In fact, we remember them every day - because years later, so many hard-working British families are still trying to recover from the days of Tory control. We cannot afford to let history repeat itself, and to allow David Cameron to destroy the great progress we've made. Let us not forget the loss of homes, the unemployment, the division, the destruction of the NHS and Education, the Poll Tax and the arrogance towards the “little people” – You know the ones who actually pay tax? Vote to Slam Cam!


Kathryn White

I’m supporting Kathryn White as Labour candidate for Aylesbury. She'll make an excellent MP and shake up the smug Conservative / Lib Dem cartel locally.

http://www.kathrynwhite.co.uk

She is a local person who was born and bred in Aylesbury and wants the best for the constituency. She is standing to represent local people from her home area and to give a voice to the majority who are sick of being ignored by the local Tory and Lib Dem cartel.



Whether it is early years’ education, healthcare, social housing or pensioner support, the work Labour has done in the past 13 years has helped make our country a better place. That is the Britain we’ve been building together - the change we see all around us.



Together we have introduced the National Minimum Wage and achieved the shortest waiting times since NHS records began, brought in the first ever legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions and now have over 44,000 more doctors and 89,000 more nurses than in 1997. This is just some of what Labour has been able to achieve so far with your support but there is more to do. Only one party in this election has the moral purpose to deliver for ordinary people – The Party which was set up to protect honest people who rely on their Labour, not the spivs, not the toffs with their sense of entitlement, not those who live off the labour of others.



The economy is growing. Stick with the economic recovery - vote Labour on May 6th.

LATEST NEWS (29 April 2010): Brown supported by 100 senior economists on economy who say he's got it right

http://ht.ly/1ED15

LATEST NEWS: The International Monetary Fund support Labour's economic plans for 2010 and also oppose tackling the deficit before 2011: "In most advanced economies, fiscal and monetary policies should maintain a supportive thrust in 2010 to sustain growth and employment. Regarding the near term, given the fragile recovery, fiscal stimulus planned for 2010 should be fully implemented". Read more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/21/western-economies-too-weak-for-spending-cuts-imf-warns

This isn't a page created from political bias, using misleading statements in a bid to score points. It's a page based on facts. Please read below and follow the link at the bottom of this page for more information.



David Cameron, George Osborne and the Tories opposed every Labour Party measure which has seen the economy grow. Cameron and Osborne were wrong. They'll be wrong again. Don't allow the Tories to ruin the road to recovery.

"We opposed the £12 billion Labour wasted on the VAT cut. We were against the fiscal stimulus".

- David Cameron, Apr 2009.



David Cameron, George Osborne and the Tories opposed the fiscal stimulus and a cut in VAT. These measures were put in place by Labour and thanks to these measures, the economy is now growing, unemployment is falling.

There's one clear message: Labour policy is working. Let's not risk the recovery with the Tories who have opposed every measure which has seen the economy grow.



Vote Labour on May 6th - stick with the recovery.

Here are the facts of how Cameron opposed the stimulus, how they'll cut now when the economy needs it most and how their policies go against the advice of experts

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&&suggest¬e_id=115147398510039


The Tory Non-Dom Leader and his UK Rep?

See also;

Old Etonian cries "Power to the People!"

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/04/old-etonian-cries-power-to-people.html

Lest we forget?

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/03/lest-we-forget.html

Lord Cashcroft

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/03/lord-cashcroft.html

We will fight them at Selfridges

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/we-will-fight-them-selfridges.html

Old Etonian cries “Power to the People”

Everybody here saw PR Dave deliver his vacuous “Power to the People” speech launching the Conservative Manifesto in front of Battersea Power Station. Unfortunately I saw him deliver it in front of a White Elephant bought for £400 M with debt from Irish Banks to Treasury Holdings and which is now owned by that long suffering individual, the Irish Taxpayer.

http://www.propertyweek.com/story.asp?storycode=3154094



The Conservatives launch of their manifesto at Battersea Power Station was just like their policies, nice looking on the outside, and hollow on the inside.
The last Tory launch at Battersea power station was when Margaret Thatcher fired a laser gun to signal the start of a theme park that, in the end, was never built. Worked stopped a year later, in 1989, leaving the building in its current derelict state.





So launches by Tory leaders in Battersea power station seem like a good idea at the time. They tend to have impeccable PR. But costs soon escalate, the foundations decay, and the whole edifice is left in a state of dereliction.

Let us remind ourselves what we must not do;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/03/lest-we-forget.html

Is David Cameron the Leader or the Deputy Leader of the Conservatives?

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/03/lord-cashcroft.html

And of David’s Statesmanship with his blood curdling cry to fight the Russians at Selfridges!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/we-will-fight-them-selfridges.html

Lest we forget ………………

We all remember the last period of Tory rule. These memories of low wages and jobs being lost are more than statistics – they are powerful images of the lives we lived.



The contrast between this recession and the early Nineties is graphic. Then mortgages were at 14.6% and the then Chancellor, the lamentable Norman Lamont said unemployment was a “price well worth paying.” His “special advisor” was one David Cameron who was with him when he led the country into the unmitigated disaster of Black Wednesday.

In British politics and economics, Black Wednesday refers to the events of 16 September 1992 when the Conservative government was forced to withdraw the Pound Sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after they were unable to keep sterling above its agreed lower limit. The most high profile of the currency market investors, George Soros, made over US$1 billion profit by short selling sterling. In 1997 the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.4 billion, with the actual cost being £3.3 billion which was revealed in 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI).


Norman Lamont and his Tory Boy advisor

Unemployment went above 3 million, Over 1.5 million houses were repossessed and lives were destroyed in boom and bust economic policies. After their failure David Cameron went on to become the PR Man (and slick lobbyist) for Micheal Green of Carlton TV, the most venal of the ITV bosses during the time the franchises were a license to print money. Now headed by a troika of Old Etonians, Dave Cameron, Gideon Osborne & Boris Johnson, and with their MP’s being 64% the product of private schools The Tory Boys and Gals want to play Tuck Shop with the country again.

Even Sir Reginald Sheffield’s photogenic daughter does not make the Tories an electable government. We all remember the dark days under Thatcher. In fact, we remember them every day - because years later, so many hard-working British families are still trying to recover from the days of Tory control. We cannot afford to let history repeat itself, and to allow David Cameron to destroy the great progress we've made. Let us not forget the loss of homes, the unemployment, the division, the destruction of the NHS and Education, the Poll Tax and the arrogance towards the “little people” – You know the ones who actually pay tax? Vote to Slam Cam!

Lord Cashcroft

Biggles and his Co-Pilot

Conservative donor and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has admitted he does not pay UK tax on earnings outside Britain. His statement ends years of questions from opponents about whether he was "non-domiciled" in the UK for tax. He said he agreed with Tory leader David Cameron's call for anyone in the Lords to be "resident and domiciled".

Labour's Jack Straw accused the Tories of "concealing the truth" for 10 years. The Lib Dems said the Tories had been "bought like a banana republic". BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the 63-year-old, who is estimated to be worth £1.1bn by the Sunday Times Rich List, was one of the biggest ever donors to a political party and was at the centre of the Conservatives' election campaign.


Lord Ashcroft of Tax Exile in the County of Belize

Lord Cashcroft is in a long tradition of Great British Patriots who are too patriotic to pay taxes, such as "Union" Jack Hayward who bankrolled the Tories from the Bahamas! Why do we stand for this nonsense? Have a British Passport or live in Britain, pay British Taxes on your worldwide income, period. That's the way it is in the Good 'Ol U. S of A where you are liable to US Federal Income Tax no matter where you live once you have a US passport. This is why there is no such thing as an American Tax Exile. Who does the Great British legal nonsense of "Domiciled", "Ordinarily Domiciled”, "Resident" and "Resident but non-Domiciled" suit? Certainly not those who earn their living (and pay taxes) on the fruits of honest labour?

Lord Ashcroft was initially rejected for a peerage in 1999 by the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee on the grounds that he spent most of his time abroad in Belize and Florida and conducted almost all of his financial matters overseas. His company Bearwood Corporate Services Limited has been the largest single contributor to the Tories since 2005, although his millions make up less than 5% of their total donations. For a company to make a donation it must be trading in the UK and in February 2009, the Electoral Commission launched a formal investigation to determine whether this was the case.

Information Commissioner Christopher Graham has called for the full details of Lord Ashcroft's status to be made public and criticised "evasive and obfuscatory" replies given by senior politicians on the subject. Ashcroft is the Tory Deputy Chairman and maintains a “private” office at Conservative HQ and he personally bankrolls a campaign to unseat the Labour / Lib-Dem incumbent in 186 target constituencies.
To go back to the American example, there he wouldn’t be allowed make political contributions and would be treated under American Law as “An agent of a Foreign Power.”


Cameron Air

One aspect of Lord Cashcroft’s influence over the Tories is his splendid bankrolling of Cameron Air. Dave “Vote Blue to get Green” Cameron and his chaps travel in style: they go in ‘Lord’ Ashcroft’s Falcon jet ($30 million second hand). Altogether shadow cabinet ministers and aides have flown 184,000 miles on the Ashcroft jet over the last five years with Andrew Mitchell, the shadow international development secretary, flying 65,453 miles and shadow foreign secretary William Hague flying 49,670 miles. It would be churlish to complain about all this privileged transport, given P.R. Dave’s understandable pride in his privileged background.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/we-will-fight-them-selfridges.html