Friday 26 April 2013

UKIP - Immigration

UKIP ran what I thought was a very professional and effective broadcast for the Local Elections. Except being UKIP it wasn't really about the local elections, it was about immigration.
In one sense I have some sympathy with the UKIP position, in that I think there has been a huge volume of immigration into the UK in recent years and it has put pressure on housing and services.  At the very least, it could have been handled better and local councils could and should have been given more resources to cope with the influx of new people.

But, on another level, I think UKIP have got it all wrong on immigration. They were basically saying, leave the EU, get control of our own borders back, problem solved.
If only things were that simple.  The USA has control of it's own borders. Has it solved the 'problem' of immigration legal or illegal ?  No of course not, there are millions of people in the country illegally.

The fact is the world has changed - the typcical UKIP activist yearns for the past.  Everything was better then. We weren't ruled by Brusells but by British MPs - the finest in the world - umm, yes, I can see the problem with this argument.  Anyway - the world has changed, 32 million of people come to visit the UK every year. Even more trips are made by UK residents going abroad.  Do you think any Government can check or control that volume of people ?
The second problem is that having 'control' of your own borders doesn't give you control of other people's.  If you want to deport people "back to where they came from" you have to have the agreement of the country to which you are deporting someone.  Surpring to some, but often they are not very keen on ahving people back, that is of course assuming you can establish where they came form in the first place.   What you need is some sort of international co-operation, a sort of overarching body that can set rules everyone has to follow, something well, like the European Union.

Wednesday 17 April 2013

damned by her own supporters - I'm incredulous about the people defending Mrs Thatchers legacy

The following quotes are from people defending Mrs Thatcher policies and legacy - really they ought to

"Scrapping rent controls for the private rented sector meant a reduced role for councils. Before there would be council Rent Officers telling landlords what rent to charge. Now the landlord and tenants are left to negotiate for themselves"

Except of course negotiations have been all one way - higher rents, huge cost for the tax payer in a rising housing benefit bill - what idiocy was this policy? It is a typical example of how a theoretical belief in the 'free market' continues long after the real world shows it has no basis in reality. It has probably done more to entrench poverty and dependency on benefits that anything else.

Monday 15 April 2013

UFOs' The Troggs and the Wessex Triangle

I have had a bit of soft spot for Reg Presley of the rock band the Troggs.  He wrote some good songs including classic such as "A girl like you".

Describing aliens Reg said "These beings may be 20 years million years in advance of us. What kind of technology must they have."

What indeed - Reg saw great significance in the fact that crop circles appeared appeared in a  triangle between Warminister, Wantage and Winchester.  "Look at the first few letters of each place, war, want, win. Is that a message or what?"

Well there you have - 20 million year in advance of human and the method of communication is crop circles near town who's first few letters spell out a word they wish to use.

It is confusing though, as looking on a map the triangle could be Frome, Farringdon and Eastleigh - and the messagee "From far east"

Thursday 11 April 2013

How many families are claiming £100,000 per year in housing benefit?

Thursday 4 April 2013

Trident - a solution looking for a problem

Trident, David Cameron Prime Minister of the UK asks: "Does anyone seriously argue that it would be wise for Britain, faced with this evolving threat today, to surrender our deterrent?”
Well of course they do David.

Only the retention of our independent deterrent makes clear to any adversary that the devastating cost of an attack on the UK or its allies will always be far greater than anything it might hope to gain,” he says.

In Dave's view countries like North Korea and Iran might do what exactly if the UK didn't have trident ? 

North Korea has already threatend to launch a nuclear strike at the USA which in case you hadn't noticed has a lot more nuclear weapons than the UK. 

Sorry to have to quote Black Adder - but explaining to the rather dim George the origins of the first world war, Black Adder says: "The idea was that there would be two great power blocks with us, the Russians and the French on one side and the Germans and the the Austro-Hungarians on the other, so that each side would act as the other's deterrant. There was just one slight flaw in the plan."
Baldrick: "What was that?"
Blackadder: "It was bollocks."

Deterence didn't work because people are people.

Conspiracy theories are used to control people and stop them engaging with the real world

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/obama-the-antichrist-global-warming-a-myth-lizard-people-controlling-the-world-conspiracy-theory-research-reveals-bizarre-beliefs-prevalent-in-us-8558384.html