Should Prisoners Have the Vote?
In my view, yes! Read the arguments on the BBC here.
After all, it might just help some to take some of their responsibilities seriously.
But will it make any difference?
It will to us, in that we won’t have to pay any damages to those who the European Court of Human Rights, think we have wronged.
But I doubt that the number who vote will be high!
But let’s wait until we see the statistics.
I think when we do, that this will be one of those stories that got a lot of people very heated, but in truth it won’t matter!
SAGA Backs the Time Change to Central European Time
SAGA has now backed Rebecca Harris and her Private Members Bill. Apparently 63% of over-50s back moving to Central European Time.
Well here’s one that does!
Will Britain Dance In Time to the Scottish Nationalists?
Parliament is discussing going to Central European Time today, so the BBC has a piece about the possible change from Scotland. A professor from Edinburgh University has said that Scots are generally in favour of the change to lighter evenings, but that the SNP has called the change ludicrous.
Let’s hope that every other politician feels that way about their stand.
But I’ve always felt that this very sensible move, which has so many positive energy, business, job and leisure implications will never happen, as it is in effect a vote for something that makes us closer to Europe.
Nick Clegg on Smoking
I’m not in favour of smoking, but when Nick Clegg discloses that he does on Desert Island Discs, it’s not good. Is it another case of politicians saying do as I say and not as I do?
Austin Mitchell Prepares for AV
I found this piece in The Independent, as I travelled towards Leicester. A snippet in the main article was headlined “A1 Austin takes no chances” and it described Austin Mitchell’s preparations for alternative vote.
In Australia, they call it the donkey vote. Faced with a long list of candidates to be listed in order of preference under the AV system, voters start at the top and work down.
Next year, there will be a referendum on whether to introduce AV to British elections and it was noticeable that two members of Labour’s national executive whose names began with W lost this year, The Labour MP Austin Mitchell is taking no chances. “When the system comes in I will change my name to A1 Austin,” he told MPs this week.
I know Australians, who are very intelligent, but I can understand some of their thicker countrymen voting in that way, just as I can imagine some of my countrymen. Perhaps we should put symbols by each candidate to indicate their party!
We could perhaps use one of Mrs. T’s handbags for the Tories and perhaps two aircraft carriers for NuLabor.
Brown’s Aircraft Carrier Too Many
The Times really lays into Gordon Brown this morning about the purchase of a second aircraft carrier, which more than likely will never be used by any fixed wing aircraft.
This was what greeted Gordon Brown this morning from the front page of The Times.
Taxpayers will have to pick up the £2.6 billion bill for the controversial aircraft carrier that will never carry jets because Gordon Brown agreed an “unbreakable” contract designed to protect shipbuilding jobs in Scotland.
Under a 15-year agreement signed with BAE Systems, the Labour Government guaranteed work for the company’s shipyards on the River Clyde and in Portsmouth.
This included the £5.2 billion contract to build two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy, which David Cameron revealed this week that he was unable to cancel.
When the coalition looked at axing one of the carriers to save money, BAE responded that the Government would still have to pay shipworkers to do nothing for the remaining 12 years of the deal. However, at no point did Mr Cameron’s ministers seek to renegotiate the shipbuilding agreement with BAE, according to the company.
It looks like game, set and match to BAE!
As I said earlier, big contracts are too important for politicians to get involved.
What is also interesting is that despite all these bribes to his friends in heartland constituencies and trade unions, Brown still lost. So we’re all having to pay for the idiot’s bribes and mismanagement!
It’s about time, politicians were made liable for some of their disasterous decisions and purchases.
The A11 Missing Link Goes Ahead
Or that’s what it looks like after the government’s cost cutting according to this report on the BBC.
I know you could have argued that in our current state all road projects should go, but this is one that will pay for itself in lives saved because of the dangerous Elveden village.
The upgrading of the A14 through Cambridge has been scrapped, but if the Felixstowe to Peterborough rail freight mprovements kick in as they should, then the congestion caused by heavy lorries may decrease. Remember too, that a lot of the cars on this section of the A14 are commuters working in the high-tech businesses in the Cambridge area and these are just the commuters that might use alternative technological alternatives.
So if it was the A14 or the A11, then the A11 is the more iportant. It’s just a pity though, that there appear to be no plans in place to improve the links between Great Yarmouth and the rest of the country. The A11 Missing Link will be a great help, but work on the Acle Straight would very much be welcomed.
Why Politicians Should Keep Their Sticky Fingers Out of Government Projects
The aircraft-carrier fiasco is a classic project, where politicians have tried to be all things to all men and quite a few women as well.
Surely, if France can make do with just one carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, then why do we need two. And surely, we should have an Anglo-French aircraft manning both,as quite a few projects between the two countries work well.
But that more affordable option would have been bad for NuLabor in its Scottish heartland.
The Scots are good at many things, but over recent years they have shown that they are not very good at politics with an English dimension or one with a great amount of project mangement.
I’ve just read this piece from Robert Peston’s blog. The highlight for me was a comment from Wee Scamp, who as you see describes himself as a non-voting Scot.
As a non Labour voting Scot I am quite sure that Gordon Brown set up the carrier contract to ensure Scotland – and particularly Glasow – would vote Labour in the May election.
My logic for believing this is quite straightforward. Most importantly, the design of the new carrier is very badly flawed in that they’re not nuclear powered, do not have an angled flight deck and aren’t equipped with either a catapult or arrestor gear. In other words they are limited to using VSTOL and/or helicopters but couldn’t carry a conventional jet and will be limited in range due to their dependence on needing a refuelling tanker or access to dockside refuelling facilities.
In other words, if we really needed these carriers they would have been properly designed. In fact though they are just a job creation exercise and Brown couldn’t have really cared less what they were or weren’t capable of.
Indeed, politically the only error he made was ensuring the contracts can’t be broken. If they had been then both carriers would have been cancelled and the boost to Labour would have been huge. Not surprisingly though he couldn’t even get that right.
Yet again Prudence shows himself to be an even worse Prime Minister than Lord North.
Be Difficult and Stupid and You Get a Peerage!
The Times today is thinking that the leader of the awkward squad and Ed Milliband’s biggest financial backer is in line for a peerage.
So do your best to make life miserable for millions of people and get a reward! The fact that it is being discussed shows that Ed Millimind must have really thought the thing through!
It just shows that the remains of Nulabor don’t have the qualifications to run a whelk stall on Hastings Pier, which last time I saw pictures of it, was in a better state than the Labour Party.
The Anonymous Widower 