Unforeseen Consequences

So, Benazir Bhutto is dead. Depending on whom you believe she was either shot multiple times or knocked unconscious, later to die in hospital. Regardless, I suspect this event will not fade away from our headlines for some time.

As always our ever so thoughtful and enlightened Prime Minister, Gordon Brown was quick to make a public statement in which he claimed that:

Benazir Bhutto was a woman of immense personal courage and bravery.

Knowing, as she did, the threats to her life, the previous attempt at assassination, she risked everything in her attempt to win democracy in Pakistan, and she has been assassinated by cowards afraid of democracy.

This is a sad day for democracy. It’s a tragic hour for Pakistan.

Unfortunately these words were uttered by a man who refuses to give the British people a referendum on the completely undemocratic EU Constitution (a promise on which he was elected) and continues to give away further sovereign powers to an unelected, bureaucratic EU Commission. The Prime Minister wouldn’t know what democracy was if it came up to him and punched him in the face.

Anyway, be that as it may; returning to the original point about Benazir Bhutto’s death, I will not pretend to know much about internal Pakistani politics, because I in fact know very little. However, what I do know is that the country has an enormous problem with Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. This has also had a profound affect on neighbouring Afghanistan and on our troops stationed in that region already undertaking the extremely difficult task of trying to restore relative order and stability.

Click here to continue reading the article…

Democracy Defeated

And so it ends. David Miliband has signed the EU Constitution in Lisbon. Gordon Brown’s signature followed later this afternoon. Parliamentary approval is in little doubt as dissenting Labour MPs will surely be whipped into submission.

There was no referendum, and still no real chance of ever getting one. The European Political Classes successfully conspired to bypass the wishes of their own electorates, and in the end the ‘No’ votes in France and the Netherlands meant almost nothing – just a prolonging of the inevitable.

Dr Richard North was quick to unleash his contempt and fury for the whole ceremony and especially the pre-document speech made by José Manuel Barroso:

Burbling in his own vomit-inducing way that, ‘From an old continent, a new Europe is born,’ telling us that with this treaty, ‘the EU is preparing itself to serve its citizens better and address world issues.’

Similarly, The Daily Mail were also particularly quick to publish an online article including a number of very good photographs, one of which shows Barroso in a pose I found particularly reminiscent of the depiction of Big Brother in Michael Radford’s cinematic version of George Orwell’s 1984.

Click here to continue reading the article…

The Final Act Draws Closer

The media has been making a big song and dance of the fact that Gordon Brown will miss the official signing of the EU Constitution which is currently being passing off under guise of the Lisbon Reform Treaty.

Rather unfortunately for us though, our fanatically europhile Foreign Secretary David Miliband will travel to Lisbon in the Prime Minister’s stead and put pen to paper as the United Kingdom’s official ‘representative’.

Once again it really does come as little surprise that the media as a collective entity have successfully managed to reduce the incredibly important issue of how our nation is to be governed and by whom, to one of petty, meaningless personalities and theatrical acts of no significance.

Whether or not Gordon Brown signs the treaty document at the official time and place is almost completely irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that he will be signing the EU Constitution eventually, without ever consulting the British people as he and his Labour party promised, and in doing so condemning us to yet further unjust and undemocratic rule from the unelected bureaucrats and politicians in Brussels.

As I have pointed out before, this will be very bad for all of us. Well, except for the politicians of course.

Public Funding For Political Sins

I do not find the subject of party political donations of particular importance or interest. It is a relatively minor and trivial issue when you consider just how much else is wrong with the way our country is being governed.

Yet, without wishing to dwell for particularly long on what has become a media soap-opera issue, I believe it is worth briefly reflecting upon the underlying consequences that this week’s events will undoubtedly have for us all.

Now, it seems quite clear that within the past few days, Gordon Brown and the Labour party have been attempting to switch the focus of media scrutiny from their recent illegal misdoings to that of party funding. The decision by the Prime Minister to discuss political ‘transparency’ strikes me as that of a man desperately trying to make the most out of a bad situation – but then really this is as much as to be expected.

As it stands, the Conservative party currently desires to break the longstanding link between the Trade Unions and the Labour party, while conversely Labour wishes to remove wealthy Conservative party donors including Michael Ashcroft and Irvine Laidlaw from the marginal seat equation.

Yet, while solutions to the supposedly urgent problem of illegal donations that were previously touted included a cap on individual donations and electoral spending limits, in shifting the media spotlight from solely his party to that of how all parties are funded, Gordon Brown has once again allowed the old idea of public funding for political parties to rear its head.

Click here to continue reading the article…