Blair sucks up to mass-murderer Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, Prince Andrew had been terribly cosy with a billionaire paedophile, and the LSE is up to its armpits in Libyan money. Andy McSmith in The Independent argues that many more universities are up to their necks in it.
These are the “great and the good”, the intellectual leaders, the élites who infest the upper reaches of our society, who glide so easily amongst the rich, the powerful and the famous. These are the people who, individually and collectively, decide what is good for us, who see fit to tell us what to do, who warn us about climate change and such matters … yet they consort with thieves, murderers and sexual perverts, and live off tainted money.
We should be allow ourselves to be led by them? Or is it time for some spring cleaning?
When your former prime minister goes public and declares that the government should buy a new icebreaker, then you’re not talking about Britain – yet. This is former prime minister and industrialist Tiit Vähi, who comes from Estonia. He believes that the state should urgently order a new icebreaker, “Instead of spending money on buying icebreaking services.”
At the moment, Estonia has two icebreakers, the Tarmo (pictured below) and Zeus, but “difficult ice conditions” in the Gulf of Finland are forcing the Maritime Administration to look for a third.
The Gulf of Finland is covered by thick ice from the Estonian mainland to Osmussaar, making it possible for only large ships to reach Muuga Harbour. Recently, eight vessels were icebound near Kunda and Sillamäe. The situation has been no different on the Gulf of Riga, where the port authority is working its icebreaker Varma non-stop, and still needs help. Chaotic conditions have been reported.
The Baltic is no stranger to freezing conditions, but recently the ice has expanded into the central part of the sea, and in some regions there is simply not enough icebreaking capacity.
Already, the Estonian government has had to allocate €3 million extra for icebreaking, and since 14 February, its two icebreakers, have been working in the vicinity of the northern Estonian ports, yet as the ice conditions are getting more complicated. The need for reinforcements is inevitable, the Administration says.
Very recently, it was reported that, following another extended stretch of sub-zero temperatures, ice coverage on the Baltic Sea was greater than it had been for nearly a quarter century. About 100,000 square miles of the Baltic Sea were covered in ice. The last time so much of the Baltic had frozen was the winter of 1986-87, when ice covered nearly 150,000 square miles of the sea’s surface.
The problem is being seen as ongoing, and long term-investment is considered necessary to resolve it. In the short-term, the ice is expected to freeze over even more than 1987. But, what is so much fun here is that EU funded researchers, with €22 million of research grants, are claiming that the sea is threatened by “climate change”.
Professor Aarno Kotilainen at the Geological Survey of Finland says: “Some estimates suggest that climate change in the Baltic Sea area causes sea surface temperatures to rise, increases winds and shortens the ice-cover season”. Perhaps he should be looking out the window a little more often.
Certainly, Estonia economics minister Juhan Parts thinks a new icebreaker is needed. He says the situation is quite worrying. Severe ice conditions are expected to last another three to four weeks and there is only one reserve vessel available for emergencies. Arrangements to use it depend on the needs of Finland and Sweden.
That makes spending the €22 million on climate change research a real shame. It would have been a useful down-payment on that new icebreaker. But then it is only the meteorologists who are warning that ice coverage on the Baltic could expand further in the coming days, possibly setting a new record. What do they know? The proper, EU scientists are working from computer models, and they beat real evidence any day. There is no ice … move along please.
The Barnsley Central by-election yesterday brings back Labour on a reduced vote but increased share. The Tories bombed and the Lib-Dims crawled in to a humiliating sixth place after UKIP – which came second – and the BNP.
The election was a remarkable event in that it was called after the resignation of Eric Illsley, the Labour thief who was given a 12-month prison sentence last month for stealing taxpayers’ money.
Needless to say, the voters of Barnsley have rewarded such infidelity by voting in another Labour MP. He gets a 13.53 percent increase in the percentage vote, compared with the General Election, giving him 60 percent of the votes cast. But this he managed on 14,724 votes, compared with Illsley’s vote of 17,487 – which actually registered 47.3 percent of the votes cast.
The winner of the gravy train award is Dan Jarvis, a former Major in the Parachute Regiment. He now has a nice little earner to go on top of his Army pension and, if he plays his cards right, a job for life. The good people of Barnsley, on current form, seem unlikely to vote for anything else but a Labour candidate. Chances are, they would have returned the thief if he had stood.
We can, however, take some entertainment from the utter humiliation of the Lib-Dim candidate. At the General, the candidate polled 6,394 votes – 17.3 percent of the popular vote, coming in second. The witless Dominic Carman described as a “journalist and anti-fascist campaigner”, pulled in a humiliating 1,012 votes, coming sixth with a swing against him of 13.1 percent. The BNP took 1,463 and UKIP’s second place was secured with a mere 2,953 votes.
Since the Tories have bombed, coming in third with less than a third of the vote they pulled in the General, we can assume the Cleggerons are dead in the water – at least in Barnsley.
The result, however, is a something of victory for tribal politics, but also for the none-of-the-above party. Jarvis may have come in on 60 percent of the votes cast. With a turnout of 36.5 percent, however, he gets his seat from 23 percent of the electorate. The gravy train gets less than one in four of the popular vote.
To an extent, therefore, people get what they deserve. At another level, people do not vote as individuals in an election. This is the decision of the “crowd”, and we see crowd psychology at work. But it is now a very small crowd. The bigger one stayed at home. If it ever decides to do otherwise, we could be in for some interesting times.
However, at still another level, this is a decisive vote against the Cleggerons. With a disgraced, thief for a former MP, on the back of one of the worst Labour governments since Labour governments were invented, and with the Catatrophic Clegg next door in Sheffield, if there was ever going to be a breakthrough for the Lib-Dims, this was going to be it.
That much says the Cleggerons do not have a mandate – not that they ever did. But any pretensions they ever had have been washed away on the hills of Barnsley which, despite its reputation, has some of the most beautiful countryside in England … one of its best-kept secrets (pictured). Now, the worst-kept secret is that, politically, the Cleggerons are finished.
We shall not mourn the passing of the vile breed. Instead, as the Lady instructed (albeit in a slightly different context), we shall rejoice!
On a day when The Independent is prattling about “savage budget cuts”, I make no apologies for putting this up from November last … nothing has changed since, apart from the fact that things have got worse. Yet, in fantasy isle, our politicians still think it is getting better. This is the stuff of revolution … the debt keeps going up, while the sharp-end services deteriorate … and the climate change co-ordinators continue to prosper.
When the film was made, national debt was £4.8 trillion … the cuts are cuts in projected increases … we are adding to the total indebtedness of the country … the government is borrowing from people who have not even been born yet … the only way they get away with it is because the unborn don’t have votes. This is insanity – WATCH THE FILM FROM HERE.
Watch and weep, if you haven’t already done so … it’s just over an hour … but worth the investment.
IN GERMANY FIVE YEARS B4 ANY BENEFITS CAN BE CLAIMERD- 5 YEARS!!
With the last major round of EU enlargement in 2004, one of the safeguards against being swamped with new migrants, who would then immediately sign on the dole and claim benefits, was transitional arrangements. We were forced to allow workers access, but could block entitlement to benefits unless or until they had worked continuously in this country for twelve months.
At the time, there was great controversy about this issue. As late as February 2004, the UK was only one the three EU countries which had not invoked these arrangements. But, under great pressure, Blair caved in, a move which then elicited a promise from the prime minister that: “No one will be able to come to the UK from anywhere in the enlarged European Union simply to claim benefits or housing”.
What, of course, he did not stress is that which the EU commission site makes clear – the arrangements are time-limited. Coming into force on 1 May 2004, they expire after seven years and cannot be renewed. Thus, on 1 May this year, chickens come home to roost.
Says The Daily Mail, as many as 100,000 migrants from Eastern Europe will be allowed to claim £250-a-week as “Europe forces Britain to abolish its restrictions on benefits”. That is not quite right, of course – the reality is that the restrictions lapse automatically. How entertaining it is that this happens on the Tory watch, with Euroslime Dave’s ministers admitting that they are powerless to prevent it happening.
The Tories supported enthusiastically this round of enlargement, and now we see Damian Green, pensions and works minister, spinning furiously. He argues that there will not be a free-for-all. He is right, but only partially so. Yes, rules will still apply, but the point is that, under EU anti-discrimination law, we must apply the same rules equally to British nationals and EU immigrants.
This move, says The Mail, could cost the British taxpayer tens of millions of pounds, and there is no doubt it will. An unemployed Pole in his own country need only get on a cheap flight to London, find a doss house and register an address to pass the “habitual residence” test. Then all manner of benefits will flow his way. Any sensible Pole – and there are an awful lot of them – would be mad not to consider it.
Strangely, only last night I was writing that people have to get used to the idea that there is no natural limit to the amount of damage the EU can do. And here we have yet another example. My caution that we leave the EU, or it destroys us, was not hyperbole. The reality stares us in the face.
In the interim, one cannot fail to observe that there is no wonder we are cutting back the Armed Forces … we will need the money to pay migrant benefits.
Centurean2\'s Weblog 