Now Shops that contain Post Offices may be forced to close

One wonders what exactly is behind the current round of post office closures.

There is evidence to suggest that the Defra is closing viable post offices. Now it seems they also want to ensure that those Post Offices they have earmarked for destruction, that they ‘withdraw the whip’ from, actually do go under and close.

They refuse to allow the shops to continue to act as Post Offices and are making any compensation offered for the withdrawal of the ‘franchise’ dependant on crippling their businesses by preventing them providing the likes of lottery tickets, Offering any bill payment services, foreign currency services, or reselling stamps, etc.

They appear to want to force as much as possible of the ‘business’, the soon to be ex Sub Post Offices, have, to use the remainder of the network - Regardless of the cost to the customers, or the Sub Post Offices they are casting aside. Or indeed competition laws.

Clearly if anyone cares about the Post Office’s customers it is the Post and Sub Postmasters and Postmistresses - The staff that interact with their customers, not the higher management of the Post Office, or New Labour.

They seem desperate to shuck off as much as possible of the actual service to the public that the Post Office, as an institution, has provided for us all for so many years.

It seems to be yet another example of a valued institution (probably unintentionally) ultimately destroyed by an inept state trying to turn it from something valuable to British society, part of the glue that holds it together, the hidden infrastructure, into something it never was, nor could be - and retain the value and values it had.

Treason - Just too old fashioned a word for New-Labour

It seems that Treason may be just too old fashioned for New Labour.

Ex attorney General Lord Goldsmith is planning to ditch it as part of a ‘review’.

Now it may be because Gordon Brown is just too squeamish to charge British citizens with it who commit it by fighting against British troops at home or abroad, or attempting to kill British civilians going about their lawful business. It is an emotive word, even though that is exactly what they have done. They can't possibly be charged with it if it is done away with though and that would save a bit of official squirming among the Islington tendency political classes.

Or it may be New labour are mindful of the fact that it could easily be argued that Gordon Brown has already committed it in signing up to the Lisbon ‘Treaty’, or the majority of their MPs a quite a few Lib Dem MPs and Two ot three conservative ones committed it the other day, when they agreed to it…

Every bond you break

This week I shall mostly be posting little, or nothing, as the opportunities will be few and far between. In any event one begins to wonder what the point is anyway - I am having a ‘Clegg’ moment on the futility of attempting to impede the unstoppable New Labour Fascist-Lite TM juggernaut, though unlike Clegg I am not inclined to actually assist them.

I was watching a music channel the other night with Mrs CFD when who should come on but The Police - no not the protest song the police have coined to remind the reluctant to venture out after dark Jacqui Smith of the fact that New Labour have decided to ignore the system that sets their pay because it is inconvienient for them.

I am talking about Sting (Gordon Sumner), Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland, The Police. They were playing Every breath you take and I had a little epiphany - don’t worry I cleaned up after myself ;-).

Sting said of it; “The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realise at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control.”

But the thing that occurred to me is that it almost perfectly encapsulates what politicians are to the voter - and the ‘relationship’ the voter should have with the politician. They really should represent and in a sense belong to the voter, as should parliament.

It works very well as a song for the voter to sing, as a model of how the voter should relate to the politician (watch them like a hawk), with the possible exception of the four lines beginning “Since you've gone…”.

So here is a version for the voter to take to their heart, without those lines. I have changed them, but if you think you can do better - comments, baby, baby, please…

So let’s call it, a:

Quote of the Day

Every breath you take.
Every move you make.
Every bond you break.
Every step you take.
I'll be watching you.

Every single day.
Every word you say.
Every game you play.
Every night you stay.
I'll be watching you.

Oh can't you see, you belong to me?
How my poor heart aches, with every step you take.

Every move you make.
Every vow you break.
Every smile you fake.
Every claim you stake.
I'll be watching you.

If it’s gone my liberty is lost without a trace.
It’s a loss, that I just don’t care to face.
It’s one thing that you really can’t replace.
So I try, to make sure that it’s not the case…….

Every move you make.
Every vow you break.
Every smile you fake.
Every claim you stake.
I'll be watching you.

Every move you make.
Every vow you break.
Every smile you fake.
Every claim you stake.
I'll be watching you.......

Clegg betrays Lib-Dem manifesto promise

As predicted Gordon Brown is a step closer to his eventual EU commissioner hood. He has ridden roughshod over democracy to force the Lisbon Treaty down the nation’s reluctant throat.

Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg was interviewed last night on Sky News 24 on the 19:00 slot.

They were mostly asking some difficult questions about his sacking of the only honourable members of his shadow cabinet/front bench team, the ones who had voted for a referendum.

The presenter was interested in if he was going to punish any of the other Lib-Dem MPs who had defied the party whip imposing his will, in order to vote as their manifesto had promised they would.

He blustered a bit, but tellingly when they asked what he thought people would think of the way he forced many Lib-Dem MPs to vote against their consciences he suggested the Conservatives had somehow been ‘mealy mouthed’ in trying to make acceptance dependant on a referendum. He said as closely as I can recall “If the Conservatives had their way it wouldn’t change things for one moment”.

He seemed to be acknowledging that even a no vote in a referendum wouldn’t stop, or even delay, the European project, or the constitution – and in this he is probably right. The previous no votes haven’t made a jot of difference, so why should a referendum result?

He is wrong though and it says something detrimental about his character that he thinks this way. Not necessarily wrong about the eventual outcome, but wrong about the futility of standing up for what you believe in, even if you may be doomed to ultimately fail, there is still a chance you could make a difference.

This is something he apparently does not understand. It is to their credit that some of 'his' MPs do.

UK parliament to vote on Lisbon Treaty

Today the so-called mother of parliaments betrays the people of the UK, if things go Gordon Brown’s and Nick Clegg’s way – and it is likely things will.

Having stood on a platform offering a referendum on the subject, New Labour MPs have been instructed to vote for the Lisbon Treaty - and avoid a referendum. Lib Dems, after making some noises about principles, will be permitted to abstain and thus not oppose it. Of the 3 main parties, only the Conservatives appear to be doing the honourable thing.

That vote is today.

Some 90% of the electorate want a referendum and these people, these MPs know it. These people, who allegedly represent the population of the UK. These people, who if they vote for the treaty without it being dependant on a referendum, can not avoid knowing they are deliberately doing the exact opposite of their job.

They know full well the will of the people in this matter - and yet they are prepared to crush it under their heel.

Any one of them who fails to stand up and demand a referendum is betraying the trust of the electorate, their promises made to it in order to get elected and twice over the principles of parliamentary democracy.

Does anyone expect this to influence their behaviour? It’s not as if it might immediately increase the chances of concealing out what they have been claiming ‘expenses’ for…

Anyone at all…. You madam, what about you, the elderly lady over there… No?

Quote of the Day

” Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, it's inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

Winston Churchill

Average UK hospital waits rise under New Labour

Before New Labour came to power in 1997 waits for hospital treatment of more than 18 months were not rare, now no-one waits longer than six months. Hurrah! Yes? – No. Not necessarily.

Sounds good, at first sight though, dosn’t it? The sort of soundbite Gordon Brown would proudly boast of in PMQ, or at conference.

The thing is the average wait has risen from 41 days to 49 days. Only 8 days up you may think. But it is 8 days longer on average.

This is a symptom of New Labour thinking. Everyone must be brought to a level. It’s like education, rather than raise up those getting a worse service they bring down everybody to the lowest level. The lowest common denominator, as they used to say - when such terms were recognised and understood by more people. So practically speaking overall levels of delivery drop.

Just so with waiting lists. To drop that headline figure to 6 months it is true that the really long waits have been drastically cut – but so have the really short ones.

So why did there used to be really short waits?

The question is who prioritised those waits back then? Well Doctors did, based on medical need, the urgency of the case. Now they are prioritised in order to meet state targets. One size fits all. So if you really need a short wait…

As chairman of the British Medical Association's consultants committee, Jonathan Fielden, pointed out "Doctors have been stopped from using their clinical judgement and pushing people through the system when they need to be.”

So the question you need to ask yourself is: Are you actually getting a better service, or just taken for yet another ride…

Nine in every ten UK voters want a referendum of Lisbon Treaty

A recent series of large scale mini-referendaorganised by I want a referendum.com on the issue of a demand for national referendum to ratify the so-called Lisbon Treaty reveals that 88% of voters would like UK ratification of the treaty be subject to a referendum. The turnout to these was higher than in a national election.

The Treaty is effectively identical to the rejected European constitution and hands large chunks of parliamentary power to the EU.

Presumably the voters don’t trust MP’s with the powers they have loaned them. Don’t trust them not to sell all our birthrights for a mess of pottage (lentil stew or soup). Hardly surprising really, when they apparently can’t even be trusted over expenses.

Will this result influence parliament?

Not very likely, based on Gordon Brown’s - and now for some unfathomable reason Nick Clegg’s ludicrous insistence that a referendum is not needed. They are desperately and entirely unconvincingly trying to maintain the lie that the treaty is not effectively identical to the constitution that they agreed did need one. This in the face of continental insistence that it is.

Gordon Brown seems to have forgotten that power is not his by natural right. His power is loaned to him by the electorate. It is given based upon promises his party made before the last election that they would allow a referendum.

Clegg is trying to confuse the issue with suggestions of a referendum on remaining in the EU, presumably because he feels this can be used to fudge the issue as it is less likely the electorate would actually completely repudiate the UK’s EU membership. Brown does not even want to chance that.

If he will not allow a referendum on the treaty, then no matter what he says, his position is not legitimate. Nor his authority. Nor will the treaty be.

Rural communities in the UK get a raw deal from New Labour

A report by the Rural Services Network points out what has been apparent for years; that ‘rural’ communities Small towns, villages and hamlets in the UK, come a very poor last when it comes to almost anything the state has control over or any influence in.

Things like schools, hospitals, post offices, public transport, police stations, fire stations, etc.

In many areas it is literally impossible to manage without cars. If there is heavy rain or snow many of these can not get through.

Schools and hospitals are have been centralised into larger and larger buildings, further and further away from many rural communities.

This is hardly surprising when the state is controlled by an urban patrician elite, who see anything outside of large towns and cities as the equivalent of one large diorama, or quaint theme park, provided largely for rambling purposes and as a backdrop for BBC costume dramas.

It is also worth noting that where these elite do not hold sway they are quite happy to damage the provision of services in order to ensure those provided in their own seats are maintained and their seats are therefore safer.

They would presumably prefer to spend nothing on it, whilst still milking those living there for every penny they can - pretending the entire countryside is populated by fabulously rich conservative farmers who spend all day hunting foxes.

Will this report make any difference? Probably not…