Debating lunacy

April 1^st has come early this year.  Or at least it would seem, based on the foolish behaviour of  Britain’s main broadcasters.

It seems that these puffed-up arbiters of what or who  represents  politics in the United Kingdom have decided that they will invite seven party leaders to two TV debates, during the upcoming General Election and if any party refuses then there podium will bear an empty seat.  This threat is an apparent attempt to force the Conservatives to attend as until now they have questioned the format and attendees.

Really!  Who do these broadcasters think they are?    Who elected them!

Consider for a moment who they have selected to attend. 

Conservatives  36.1% in 2010 General Election  (307 parliamentary seats)

Labour  29% (258)

Liberal Democrats 23% (57)

Scottish Nationalists 1.7%  (6)

Greens 1%  (1)

Plaid Cymru 0.6% (3)

UKIP 3.1% (0)

Now consider who they haven’t invited. 

British National Party 1.9% (0)

Democratic Unionist Party 0.6% (8)

Sinn Fein 0.6% (5)

The Scottish Nationalists and Plaid Cymru only put-up candidates in their home territories and their agenda is a national rather than UK one. And yet they will be invited to attend.  Not so though, Ulster’s DUP or terrorist front-men,  Sinn Fein. 

As foul as their policies are, using the warped criteria of the BBC and ITV, shouldn’t the overtly racist British National Party get a seat at the table?

The reality is that the only debates that matter, will be those between Conservative leader, David Cameron and Labour leader, Ed Miliband.  There just might be an argument for having Nigel Farage in the room as well, given the current opinion polling position of UKIP and the UKIP successes in recent local and European elections (though my personal opinion is he should not be invited)  but certainly none of the others should participate. 

To include the others is political pandering.  The BBC and other main stream media have got it into their heads that the SNP will be the king-makers in the next parliament – they will hold the balance of power.

The SNP have stated that they will not form any kind of coalition with the Conservatives.  So that would just leave them with Labour.  The same Labour that they are apparently set to destroy, in Scotland – the very success that makes them a kingmaker comes at the expense of Labour, the only party that they will do a deal with!

Proponents of these debates  suggest that this is a means to aid the democratic process.  That is complete rubbish.  Some things that will be apparent from the debates are;

Labour will not be sufficiently pressed on its Tax, Borrow and Spend policies and exactly how their wild plans can be funded.  In any all-encompassing debate, Labour’s ruinous policies will be supported by the Lib Dems, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru and maybe even UKIP who are desperately chasing the working class vote and those of Labour’s client class in local government, the civil service and public sector unions.

Nigel Farage and UKIP will be shown to be isolated on Europe and EU membership because all of the other parties, save perhaps the Conservatives, are openly pro-EU (The EU just adores small parties – all the better to more effectively peddle influence to).  The Conservatives have promised a referendum and such has been opposed by all of the other parties, except UKIP.

No one will have the courage to mention the need to curtail the NHS budget.  All of the serious politicians know that the NHS is a financial black hole – you could feed it the whole of the country’s gross domestic product and it still wouldn’t be enough.  You can feed it your babies and you elderly but the beast will never be satisfied.  But no one will say that.

Immigration will be mentioned but again, only UKIP will have the courage to say what most British people think.  Britain is being swamped by immigrants.  What UKIP won’t say though, is that the cause of this is two-fold.  The complete relaxation of immigration controls, brought in during Labour’s 13 years of mis-rule in 1997 to 2010 and the soft welfare policies that makes the UK an attractive destination and at the same time, provides absolutely no incentive for the native work-shy Briton  to come off of benefits and take-up work.

Only the Conservatives will put forward any kind of policy that recognises the need to exploit, using fracking, the shale resources that the UK enjoys.  The Greens and all the other ‘band-waggon’ jumpers-on will be allowed to get away with downright lies about fracking, because the other parties and the media organisations, simply can’t be bothered to  investigate and develop coherent policies.  The Green ‘Watermelons’ after all, are as red inside as Labour, SNP, PC, LD etc.

David Cameron and the Conservatives must refuse to take part in the proposed debates.  The proposals are farcical and represent a debasement of democracy.  They should be joined, in making this stand, by Labour and Ed Miliband.

The winners from these debates though will be the smaller parties who will carefully craft their responses such that the cost of their idiocies is concealed from the British public and they won’t be effectively challenged because the heavyweight Conservatives and Labour will have been told, by their respective media advisors, that it would be counter-productive to act as the Goliath to the Green or SNP or PC, etc., David.

I predict though, that Cameron and Miliband will conform to previous spineless type and will agree to the broadcasters demands’.  

Republicans - wake up!

President Obama delivered his State of the Union speech this week.

There really wasn't anything surprising in its content.
The usual - the economy is thriving, its all because of Obama's policies, Obama's foreign policy is paying dividends, Obama wants more money for 'programmes', blah, blah, blah.

What I haven't heard though is a robust and concerted response from the Republicans.  Yes, those members of the party that scored resounding victories in the mid-term elections.   Where are they?  Where is the strong line that says:

 "Mr President, you have shown, over and over again, that you do not want to work with Republicans.  We have gotten the message.  We will now do what we were elected to do!  We are going to represent the people of America.  Therefore, we will oppose any, let us say that again, any attempt at any, repeat any, kind of Amnesty Bill.  We will begin steps to defund Obamacare.  Firstly though, we will revoke any and all exemptions from Obamacare.  We believe that if it is as good as you and your supporters claim, then it must be good enough for Congress and all of the other elites that have wheedled exemptions out of the administration"

"We will begin steps to reduce the deficit by rolling back the frontiers of the state.  We will work with Homeland Security and make such cooperation on a clear quid pro quo basis - as in Homeland Security does its job and seals the southern border and we continue to fund them."

"We will work with the foreign allies of the United States.  We have already begun this process by inviting the Premier of Israel to address Congress.  Countries like Israel, Canada and the European members of NATO, as well as places like Kurdistan deserve America's support both moral and materiel and we will aid this.  We put you on notice that we will not support any further aid to organisations representing Palestinians.  We will actively oppose any further rapproachment with Iran.  Actively means that we will link all of the spending that comes out of the State Department with the furtherance of this policy. "

"We will bring forward, as a response to the budget you present, measures to balance that budget plus to include within that budget, a 10% reduction in the overall spending of the US Government.  It is as clear to us, as it is clear to the American people, that we, as a nation, can no longer afford to live beyond our means"

"We will bring forward measures to rein in the ill-thought policies being pushed by the EPA.  In line with this we will halt the plans affecting coal producing areas and we will bring forward a bill to approve the Keystone 2 pipeline."

"Finally, Mr President, we will oppose, oppose and oppose again, you and your attempts to impose Socialism on the American Republic and to show favour, as you have so far consistently done, to those in the Muslim world, who would do us harm"

Any Republicans out there want to take-up the message?  There is no point in winning elections if you don't use the power that the people have given you!

French lessons

I have been off 'air' for a while, moving jobs and countries.  While I have been otherwise engaged, the horrific attacks on Charlie Hebdo were perpetrated by Islamists who in turn were hunted down and killed by French police and security forces.  The temptation was to immediately rush onto the airwaves and rant and rave (again) about the evil being perpetrated in the name of Islam, etc..  However, I thought maybe a period of reflection might serve me better.  You judge.

Not for the first time, in the last 100 years, French Jews are under attack and being sacrificed at the hands of their fellow-countrymen.  In 2013 French Jews were killed by an Islamist in Toulouse and now we see again, with the attack on the kosher supermarket in Paris, that Jews have been specifically targeted (also at Chalie Hebdo, so it seems).  In the 1940's it was Vichy French that handed over Jews to the Nazis, to suffer at Drancy and extermination camps in the East and today it is the French who again offer-up the Jews - this time to murderous Islamists.  Just as with the Nazis, so with the Islamists, making victims of the Jews won't ultimately save the French!

So we had the big march in Paris, showing solidarity with the victims of Charlie Hebdo.  The BBC, amongst many news organisations made much of this event.  Many words spoken about the right to free speech and expression, as was exemplified by the writers at Charlie Hebdo.  Then, later in the week, Charlie Hebdo released a latest issue of their magazine and lo and behold, it carried a cartoon on the cover that featured Mohammed and was sure to anger Ismalists.   True to form, the fine words spoken by the assembled mass media, just a few days earlier, didn't translate to many of them and their editors having the courage to display the cartoon in question.  I tip my hat though, to Britain's Guardian which did.  I usually hold this newspaper in contempt but here at least they let their actions match their words.  Bravo!

However, before the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo hit the news-stands, we we treated in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and at the Paris march, to speeches from politicians and world 'leaders'.  All spoke of the importance of the right of free speech and how this must be protected.  Then, with the ink not dry on the editorials which commented upon the speeches and the march, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel,  was telling the organizers of the now weekly Pergida marches in Dresden and other German cities, that it would be best if this week's marches were canceled.  I cannot be alone in seeing the complete contradiction in marching for free speech on Sunday and then advising against it, on Monday!  I lack a thesaurus but there has to be a words stronger than rank hypocrisy to describe such actions.

And think of the consequences of this.  Yet further reinforcement of the actions that have gotten us into this mess.  We mustn't offend, we must appease!

The biggest problem facing Europe, and increasingly America, Canada and Australia, is the failure of multi-culturalism.  Let's be very clear, Muslim immigrants in those countries are not assimilating.  No one is saying that they cannot practice their religion but they need to adopt certain of the host country's values.  Tolerance of other faiths, freedom of speech, the host country law being the only law, learning the language, etc..  Absent this, then these immigrants must be considered as a fifth column and a threat to the peace and stability of the host country and they must be expelled, just as you would do with any other threat.

The leftist policy of multi-culturalism has brought us to this and now we have to stand-up and say enough and then we need to do something about it and carry on doing something until multi-culturalism is consigned to the same dustbin of history where one would find Marxism and Communism.  Let's hope though that the victims that suffer during the ridding of multi-culturalism do not number anywhere near the 10's of millions that suffered and died under those other failed ideologies.

I have just re-read the above and wonder who will take-up the cudgels on this?  In Britain the main parties pay lip-service to a need for change.  The Conservatives just maybe might do something.  Labour spouts about the need to do something about immigration but them having been the ones that threw the immigration floodgates, wide open, they won't because of their need for its ethnic, client constituencies.  UKIP says it would but I really can't see them as a realistic electoral success story.

While Barack Hussein Obama is President of the USA, don't expect any push back.  This is the man that says that the Islamic State murderers are not Islamists!   Those people who are killing Yazidis and Christians, in the most barbaric fashion claim to represent Islam.  The people who carried out the attacks in Paris, and those caught-up in yesterday's shoot-outs in Belgium claim to represent Islam.  Yet still Obama shames America by claiming the contrary.  Perhaps he did the right thing by not attending the Paris march.  Though he wouldn't have been alone in sounding hypocritical with his words, his presence would have been an embarrassment.  Never forget, Obama wrote ' when the winds change and turn against Islam, I will stand with the Muslims'  So his loyalties are clearly known!