What Next - time to bury caesar

So here we are. Liberal Democrats find themselves locked into a deadly embrace with a thatcherite anti-european tory party led by that trickster David Cameron. He is determined to destroy the Lib Dems with a toxic gift of austerity and broken promises, as well as follow a stealth Thatcherite agenda which will marginalise Britain forever. The Lib Dems are trying to stick to the coalition to help the country over the next four years and hoping that the party's fortunes will revive. With the prospect of worse economic news this looks unlikely. Time for a plan B.
Clegg and Cabinet colleagues should treat this political marriage, just like a real one and in the face of the serial political infidelity of the tories move out of the happy home - ie move out of the government and cross the floor into opposition. A constructive opposition where Lib Dems would support the government in confidence motions and then flex their veto powers to obtain concessions from the government on Europe, economic growth, student tuition fees as well as getting troops out of Afghanistan in 2012.


If the Conservatives refuse to play ball, then re-open negotiations with Labour on an agenda for growth and fairness. Whilst a Lib-Dem, Labour, Green, SNP, PC and Northern Ireland anti-cuts minority government might lack a strong majority, the Rainbow coalition of the progressive centre left could be backed up by an electoral pact where the most popular anti-tory candidate could be fielded and would see an additional 28 Lib Dem MP's and 97 Labour MP's if the tories voted the government down in a confidence motion followed by an election. Perhaps such an alliance might include a genuine offer of proportional representation from the pro-PR Milliband. Time to bury caesar. Anyone got a knife?

Analysis of Election Results from a Lib-Dem-Labour-Green Party-SNP-PC Electoral Pact*

*Based on 2010 election results the following constituencies would have changed hands.

Conservative to Lib Dem (+28)

Bath

Bosworth

Bournemouth West

Bridgwater and Somerset West

Bristol North West

Broadland

Camborne and Redruth

Canterbury

Chelmsford

Colne Valley

Congleton

Cornwall South East

Devon West and Torridge

Harrogate and Knaresborough

Hereford and Herefordshire South

Hexham

Montgomeryshire

Newton Abbot

Oxford West and Abingdon

Reading East

St Albans

Shrewsbury and Atcham

Tewkesbury

Truro and Falmouth

Watford

Weston-Super-Mare

Winchester

York Outer

Conservative to Labour (+97)

Aberconwy

Amber Valley

Basildon South and Thurrock East

Battersea

Bedford

Blackpool North and Cleveleys

Brentford and Isleworth

Brigg and Goole

Brighton Kemptown

Broxtowe

Burton

Bury North

Calder Valley

Cannock Chase

Carlisle

Carmarthen West and Pembrokesh

Chatham and Aylesford

Chester, City of

Cleethorpes

Corby

Crawley

Crewe and Nantwich

Croydon Central

Derbyshire South

Dewsbury

Dover

Dudley South

Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale

Ealing Central and Acton

Elmet and Rothwell

Enfield North

Enfield North

Erewash

Filton and Bradley Stoke

Finchley and Golders Green

Forest of Dean

Gillingham and Rainham

Gloucester

Great Yarmouth

Halesowen and Rowley Regis

Hampstead and Kilburn

Harlow

Harrow East

Hastings and Rye

Hendon

High Peak

Hove

Ilford North

Ipswich

Keighley

Kingswood

Lancaster and Fleetwood

Leicestershire North West

Lincoln

Loughborough

Milton Keynes North

Milton Keynes South

Morecambe and Lunesdale

Northampton North

Northampton South

Norwich North

Nuneaton

Pendle

Peterborough

Plymouth Sutton and Devonport

Portsmouth North

Preseli Pembrokeshire

Pudsey

Reading West

Redditch

Rossendale and Darwen

Rugby

Scarborough and Whitby

Sherwood

Shipley

Somerset North East

South Ribble

Stafford

Staffordshire Moorlands

Stevenage

Stockton South

Stourbridge

Stroud

Swindon North

Swindon South

Tamworth

Telford

Thurrock

Vale of Glamorgan

Warrington South

Warwick and Leamington

Warwickshire North

Waveney

Weaver Vale

Wirral West

Wolverhampton South West

Worcester

Britain Isolated?

Not since the Suez Fiasco in 1956 has Britain become so Isolated as it is today. The perfect dream of anti-europeans in UKIP and Eurosceptics in the Conservative Party is becoming reality. Britain has finally said No to Europe. Together with the fact that the Euro in it's present form looking doomed, gives cheer to Mrs Thatcher and poor Ted Heath is probably turning in his grave. Once again Liberal Democrats have appeased the Conservative Party in the national interest.
Britain is in a minority of one against 26 other European Countries. Many people are cheering David Cameron's actions, and think them long overdue. Fewer but perhaps more insightful people are wondering what just happened, and pondering that perhaps Britain just stepped away from 50 years of trying to be at the heart of Europe.
As one European put it - Britain is free but without power. So is what has happened good for Britain? - On the face of it - it is hard to see why distancing ourselves from our major export market would be a good thing. It is difficult to see how excluding ourselves from policy making in this new eurozone europe would be advantegous.
Sure right now - the Eurozone is a basket case and still not taking the dramatic steps the markets demand. But in the long term, the new Europe of the Eurozone will eventually return to stability. Will the British of 2025 thank us for the events of this December?
In the short-term Britain seems to have fared well outside of the ERM and the EURO since 1993, and may well do so for the next five years. The doubt exists whether we can remain in the single market and even the EU without being in the Eurozone, it looks doubtful according the sabrerattling in Europe. Yet who has more to lose? Has 38 years of EC membership really helped Britain? -
Looking at Britain's Imports and Exports from and to Europe between 1970 and 2009 the facts show that while Exports to the original six EEC members - France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands has grown by 45 times since 1970, imports have soared a staggering 60 times. Whilst in 1970 Britain exported 50% more to Belgium that it Imported, by 2009 this had reversed to importing 30% more than export.
As a pro-European it seems that British membership of the common market has boosted exports but at the expense of higher import growth. Whilst in 1970 - Britain maintained a small 4% trade deficit with the EEC, that deficit soared to 29% in 2009.

As a Pro-European it galls me to say that it appears from these figures that EU membership appears to have hindered Britain.

Yet as a Pro-European - I want to see Britain at the heart of Europe, showing leadership and promoting freedom, democracy and British values such as tolerance and liberty. So much of English history has been spent promoting division in Europe and the folly of 2 world wars which started in Europe contrast sharply with the good sense of the EEC era of peace and cooperation.

When in 1923 German suffered from hyperinflation a scaring process which even now prevents Bankers in Frankfurt from printing money, British isolationism played a part in the creation of the Nazis in power in 1933. Now in 2011 we stand on the sidelines and europe again deals with crisis with Britain on the sidelines and not helping. We will come to regret our isolation.

Can Britain make up it's mind to play a full role in Europe, not to join the common market but to sell to it more than we buy from it. Could our leaders forge real alliances with democrats and make common cause against tyranny ? Doesn't look likely.

Jeremy Clarkson - Professional Buffoon and Tory Insider

Where Boris fears to tread, step forward Professional Buffoon and Tory Insider - Top Gear Presenter Jeremy Clarkson. A man unfraid of losing his £1 million BBC Salary through often illadvised remarks. Fellow presenters James May and Richard Hammond make better foils for his right wing brand of comedy than poorly paid teachers, nurses and cleaners who have been bullied into strike action by a Tory led coalition government that is seeking to rob them of their pension rights to fill a deficit created by bailing out bankers. The Bankers are probably friends of Clarkson and avid watchers of Top Gear who ruined their companies trying to earn that new Ferrari.
Clarkson is a neighbour and close friend to Tory Prime Minister Dave Cameron. He says what Cameron thinks. Perhaps Cameron secretly wishes that he could see the ring-leaders dealt with, perhaps in a smilar way he dealt with Gaddaffi. Clarkson says with his tongue firmly in his cheek that he would like to see the strikers, shot in the street in front of their families. Trade Unionists who are painfully aware of current and past government sanctioned intimidation, brutality and murder of trade unionists around the world are not laughing. I hear Clarkson has fled to China. He will be at home - China knows to deal with protest. Remember Tiananmen square. Lets hope he stays there

Beware the Nihalists?

We live in interesting times. We are surrounded by economic and social crises which have been the product of changing behaviours between generations. The doomsayers are demanding that the ordinary people sacrifice their wealth, incomes and rights to save the people. The War on terror wipped up ten years of the politics of fear, now the war on the deficit brings another round of the politics of fear. Think back, not only did the West or the Free World beat the greatested military and indeological threat in history in the form of evil empire of the USSR and Warsaw Pact, the same alliance of Britain, France America and allied nations defeat the alliance of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan.
All of the various imbalances in the world economic and financial mechanisms are easily fixable given the aspiration, morality and determination of a generation of leaders like Winston Churchill, Ernest Bevin and Anthony Eden.

We need a better do list and a unity amongst all to see the list done. Some suggestions:

1. Make sure everyone can contribute to society 2. Make the institutions like Banks and Governments serve the interests of the society. 3. Make the mechanisms like money, statistics and work serve the interests of the people rather the other way round. 4 Confront all those who undermine society through the hoarding of resources such as money& wealth.

Think back - what would Churchill have done when faced with the recent crises - would he have stood back and bemoaned his limited powers of action or would he have got on a plane and flown to Athens back in 2010 and stemmed the contagion by underwriting Greek Debt before the contagion spread to Europe. Churchill called the Second World War - the Unnecessary War , it was preventable. The events happening in our current lifetimes could easily take us back down the dark decade of the 1930's with depression, protection, autarchy and war.

Politicians need to stick to their values , face up to the problems and protect democracy, free trade and human rights against a growing and sinister grouping seeking to hijack those freedoms.

Osborne's Folly How Plan A Failed - time for Plan C

So George Osborne's inexperience and arrogance has shown through. His over ambitious optimism of the March Statement has given way to a sombre realism in November.

Labour's Ed Balls has urged Plan B - more spending financed by more borrowing. Good to spot the flaw in Osborne downward spiral of austerity but wrong to seek to increase the deficit.

Osborne and Alexander's Plan A has worked in so far as Britain has thus far avoided Greece, Ireland and Italy's fate and currently enjoys borrowing interest rates lower than Germany.

A third way - or Plan C is to take a long hard look at Britain's income, wealth and expenditure to ensure than a maximum amount of spending, employment and output is released by the organisation of the national resources. Harold Macmillan talked of the selling of the family's silver. The coalition has considered selling off the land of britain's largest landholder - the forestry commission, but this was ill judged and mismanaged. Since a large proportion of office space in London is owned by foreign investors, government offices in London could be sold off to foreign buyers and the UK government moved out of the expensive capital to the jobless provinces. Britain is a wealthy country, if the top 100 richest people in Britain provided the UK with an interest free loan to cover the UK budget deficit out of a proportion of their £250 billion wealth in exchange for enoblement to the house of Lords, and perhaps those among the top 100 who do not pay a full 50% tax rate on their incomes might consider coming clean with the taxman.

In general taxation in the economy needs to be shifting away from income and wealth creation and employment towards discouraging unproductive and things which create unproductive expenditure. Taxes on tobacco, alcohol, saturated fat, pollution, overseas investment, property speculation, second homes, pitbulls, quadbikes, cosmetic surgery, tattooists and other non productive elements should be increased. VAT should be levied on fatty food, whilst lowered on items which might promote growth.

It is vital that the unemployed are billeted onto businesses in order to stay in the workplace and that job sharing is increased to spread work through the economically active populous. Apprenticeships or a form of national service is vital to the NEET Group who are being cast onto the scrap heap.
FDR said it in 1933 - we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Wear the Hat Dave !

Here is David Cameron - visiting a world beating British Hard Hat Manufacturer and refusing to wear a hard hat. - Why - because he hates the world leading British Health and Safety Industry.

Well Dave - In life you are either a builder or a wrecker.

So Far Citizen Dave - has presided over rising unemployment, collapsing growth, record low levels of house construction. Clearly not a builder!

Why not try building a better future for British workers.


A Plan for the next few months to kick-start Growth

1. Get people spending their money again - increase job security for British workers by increasing 1 year employment rights to all workers after 6 months work increase of reducing rights to 2 years as planned.
2. Get Billionaire Tax cheats who fund the Tories to pay their taxes or remove their passports
3. Move Government out of London - The capital is one of the expensive place in the world, we need less government jobs in London and more in Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham.
4. Nationalise and sell un-used land and buildings which the Crown owns to reduce the deficit. This would include the Duchy of Cornwall, Crown Estate, Lands belonging to the Royal Family and the Church of England estate.
5. Quantitative Easing by paying the UK Credit Card Bill - this would restore domestic demand.

An Island of Wind and Storms

Question - would you rather have a windfarm in your community, or a nuclear plant or coal power station? - A no brainer really - some might dislike the wind farms but dislike the alternatives more. When Great Britain is an island battered by the winds and waves of Atlantic storms we need to keep working to cut our huge import bill from the import of russian gas and arabian oil. With nearly 3 millions on the dole and millions of uninsulated homes we need to find a way of unlocking the energy savings to pay the unemployed to do useful work.
George Osborne and the Conservatives seem eager to wreck the green growth initiative and the latest plans to smash the solar industry by the tariff changes are more evidence of an anti-business cabal of millionaries at the heart of the conservatives funded by international energy interests who seek to strangle britain's domestic energy industry in the same way as the coal fields were smashed in the 1980's and 1990's.

The Rogue Corporation versus the People

Just as in the final days of the fall of the Roman Empire, Western Liberal Democracies are drowning in a sea of debt and starting to print money and so debase the currency. Yet the root underlining core of the problem still goes deliberately un-noticed by policy makers. The reason - fear. Few people realise that whilst governments and countries are struggling and failing to service huge trillion dollar deficits, the worlds leading corporations are sitting on equally huge trillion dollar cashpiles built up over the last 20 years, the same time period that governments such as the US, Japan, and the EU countries have slowly run up debts. The why is simple. These huge corporations with their armies of accountants and tax consultants have evaded and avoided paying the taxes they owe to service the needs of the communities in which they exist. While small businesses, consumers, car drivers, and tax payers have been squeezed by rising tax levels and stealth taxes, the large corporations are glutted on tax evasion profits. Even worse than this the money has been put into huge offshore hedge funds operating out of tax havens which have speculated against the currencies and countries made vulnerable by this development. We may bemoan the small time tax dodger of Greece or Italy but ignore the tax evading corporation which owes billions.
The Billionaire Rogue media magnates and "do no evil web corporations" operate a privacy intrusion on a mass scale designed to ensnare, manipulate and control the people - whether by phone hacking or consumer profiles derived from internet activity.
Political Parties like the UK Conservative Party is funded in the majority by such people, who lobby assidiously to prevent the taxation of wealth, and corporate incomes.
So it is that banks are bailed out, small businesses and consumers are choked of funds and the world is heading for a crash. The answer is simple - pay your dues, pay your taxes and take pride in it. Policy Makers need to create a culture which celebrates tax payers and punishes the big time tax avoiders.
The economy needs growth, and this can only come from the bank balance sheets and the large corporation cash piles gained by greed and corruption.

The Coming Split in the Liberal Democrats

As the 3,000 Liberal Democrats gather in Sheffield surrounded by a wall of steel to protect against the protests of 10,000 - a prediction

All the Liberal Democrats (excepting Nick Clegg) would have preferred to have entered into an anti-tory coalition last may. But enticed with the firm promise on a referendum on a watered down form of PR, they did the deal with the Conservatives and held their noses. Of course saving the country from impending greek/irish/Icelandic economic meltdown was important but PR was the decider.

It looks improbable that that voters will endorse such a change at a time of economic uncertainty. Post Referendum failure,the Liberal Democrats will soon split between old style pre-clegg Liberal Democrats who gravitate towards deeply felt issues and opposition politics and the new style cleggites who are desperate for power and think David Cameron is a bit left wing. The core old school Lib Dems want us out of Afghanistan, and wish there was a better way on the war on terror. They like the NHS and want to give the students back their grants. They hate nuclear power and nuclear weapons . The cleggites on the other hand, want the opposite. They want to win the war on terror , stay in the killing fields of Helmand . They want radical change in the NHS, and while embarrassed about the Student fees, don’t have a fundamental problem with US style higher education funding. They love nuclear, power and weapons. In short they’re tories.

So ironically it seems by breaking into government in 2010, in 2011 the mould of British politics will finally be broken back into a 2 party system again with say 30 of the left wing Lib Dems joining Labour, 20 of the the cleggites – staying in the Conservative Coalition, and a tiny rump of 8 wee-frees as the unimportant remnant.

History repeats itself – this is precisely the outcome of the 1915 Coalition with the Conservatives and the 1931 National Government Coalition. For Samuelites read – Kennedyites, for Simonites read Clegg.