Monthly Archives: May 2016

£14m of public funds misspent?

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Courtesy of the Electoral Commission we taxpayers have just incurred a bill of £14m, split evenly twixt Stronger In and Vote Leave – the two designated campaigns chosen to lead the debate – and who thus, by the ‘expertise’ (not’) of their arguments – can have a great bearing, through their inane statements, on who wins the forthcoming referendum on the question of the UK’s membership of the European Union.

Just who, among the electorate, elected those of the Electoral Commmission, who made that decision? Just who among the electorate agreed that politicians, on both sides of the argument, could ‘take over’ and thus decide how those arguments were to be presented?  Just who, among the electorate, know that Cameron, Osborne, Gove, Johnson, Benn (H), Matthew Elliott, Dominic Cummings et all, are lying ‘B’stards’? More importantly just who among the electorate agreed to provide said lying ‘B’stards’ on each side with £7m of their money?

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Post June 24th – a few thoughts

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Bearing in mind the ineptitude of the official Leave campaign, coupled with the project fear in which  the Remain campaign are indulging, it would appear that the latter group will ‘win the day’ on June 23rd. In view of which it becomes necessary that we now look to the future.

David Cameron and his political comrades have been campaigning on retaining membership of a ‘reformed’ EU and by so doing keeping the UK’s seat at the EU table in order to continue the UK’s supposed ability to ‘influence’ that organisation. George Osborne, one of Cameron’s political comrades, has published a report which one journalist finds ‘questionable‘.

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An ‘Excitable’ Media

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Along with other bloggers I have often complained about the lack of subjective reporting by the media on ‘news’ items; be that of a general nature or, more importantly, on ‘matters EU’ and, in particular, about the forthcoming referendum on our nation’s membership of the EU.

For some time I have been struck by the media’s ‘trivialisation’ of news and the apparent need of the media to ‘make a mountain out of a molehill’. Why must we suffer the theatrical element in journalism?

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And the ‘catalyst’ for poor performance is?

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An interesting article appeared in the Guardian towards the end of April and which has only just been brought to my attention.

What is not stated in the Guardian article is that while Rod Cahil received an 8% payrise, the staff only received one of 1%.

Having ‘lived under’ three housing associations during my time in Oxon (English Churches, Riverside and Catalyst) it became obvious that housing associations are shackled, where their workload is concerned, with the need for adherence to ‘box-ticking’ on matters such as ethnicity, health & safety, equality, etc, etc; to the extent they are unable to devote the time required to that which should be their primary concern.

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Accident/Great Loss/Tragedy

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As light relief from serious matters, I think the following has appeared previously, albeit some time ago – still funny though, especially if not heard before…….

David Cameron was visiting a primary school in Yorkshire and the class was in the middle of a discussion about words and their meanings. The teacher asked Mr Cameron if he would like to lead the discussion on the word ‘Tragedy’. The prime minister asked the class if they could think of an example of a tragedy. A little lad stood up and said, ‘If my best mate is playing in the field and a tractor runs over him and kills him, that would be a tragedy.’ ‘Incorrect,’ said Cameron, ‘That would merely be an accident.’

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Those that have – and those that have not

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In this context I quote from ME Synon’s blog:

There are the protected and the unprotected. The protected make public policy. The unprotected live in it. The unprotected are starting to push back, powerfully.’

‘The protected are the accomplished, the secure, the successful—those who have power or access to it. They are protected from much of the roughness of the world. More to the point, they are protected from the world they have created. Again, they make public policy and have for some time.’

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The people’s referendum?

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What is supposed to be the ‘people’s referendum’ is anything but, having been usurped by the political class.

The Government, in the shape of David Cameron, who maintained that the decision of whether membership of the European Union should be one for that of the people, has gone out of its way to influence the result to one where Remain wins the day.

Coupled with the foregoing, the Electoral Commission has designated two groups as ‘lead voices’ – and handed them each of them £7m of taxpayers money (over which taxpayers have had no say) – and who cannot be held to account, especially bearing in mind that where the Leave campaign is concerned, those  leading it know not of that which they are supposed so to do; and in the process made fools of themselves before the Treasury Select Committee.

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So, this EU referendum: just what is it all about?

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Surely the underlying question is just what sort of country do voters want? To answer that question they have to understand exactly what democracy is – and what it should comprise.

To make an informed decision, come 23rd June, voters need unbiased information based on irrefutable fact – which is something they are not receiving. Both sides of the EU referendum question are guilty of making unfounded and thus dubious claims. As a result how can one blame the voter for taking sides, bearing in mind the simultaneous corruption of truth, when both sides of the argument wear ‘sharp suits’ and speak so nicely – while exhibiting a complete lack of knowledge of the subject matter.

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How are the mighty fallen…..

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When I were a lad the Daily Telegraph was conidered a ‘serious; newspaper; heck, it even carried a detailed daily report of events in Parliament; while also containing comprehensive and factual local and world news. Now it appears to have descended into the realms of news that was epitomised by the News of the Screws World.

Why are we surprised to learn that relationships are formed in ‘closed’ societies (ie, the workplace); hell, it has happened within the political circle, so why not within the police circle? On the other hand, should not those who are employed to make/uphold the law be ‘whiter than white’? Conversely, what business is it of ours whether police men can keep their zippers up and police women their knickers on, providing they do the jobs for which they are paid – likewise politicians?

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The Harrogate Agenda

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Where The Harrogate Agenda is concerned regular readers will know only too well that this blog has been a consistent critic of THA for its obvious inaction in promoting itself – the last article on the failure so to do being this, which encapsulated all the complaints I have made many times; together with those of commenters.

Following that article I had a conversation with the Director of THA, during which the suggestion was made by him that I would be welcome were I to choose once again to become involved in this project.

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