Posts Tagged ‘Northern Ireland’
Has There Ever Been A Worse UK Government Than This?
I am a member of the Conservative Party – just. My annual subscription is due and I feel physically sick at the prospect of doing anything that is supportive of the appalling collection of third and fourth rates that presently sit round the cabinet table.
The Conservative Party has Lost Its Way. We Need To Get Back To Being Tories.
We need to re-focus on our fundamental principles: individual liberty, individual responsibility, small government, free markets, evidence-based policy and a benevolent, responsible, one-nation approach.
Let’s face it, we’ve had a privileged toff, little more than a ponce on the nation, who from his position of wealth found it very easy to impose austerity on people with whom he was totally out-of-touch. Throughout his political career he vacillated and dithered on policy because he has no principles except self-advancement. Now we have some fake Tory, an authoritarian bureaucrat with big government, nanny state instincts, daughter of a high Anglican priest stuck in some 195os delusion of what Britain is today.
Meanwhile, a socialist activist but a man with integrity, courage and vision has stolen our place. Jeremy Corbyn provides more leadership in the UK than the entire Conservative cabinet put together. He was magnificent at Glastonbury, seizing the hearts and minds of not just the young but the young at heart – seizing the future! Where is the Tory alternative? There is great excitement, belief and enthusiasm for Brexit, 17.4 million people voted for it! Where is the Conservative spokesperson passionately declaiming this? The party has been hijacked by Remainers, determined to undermine the referendum result, interested only in the ambitions and concerns of the Westminster Elite.
When I try to talk to my MP, Sir Oliver Letwin, formerly number three in Cameron’s cabinet, although I am talking to someone a few months younger than me, I feel I am talking to my father’s generation – and to someone particularly old-fashioned and out-of-touch. My local Conservative Party branch, charming though many of the members are, is like an episode of Last of the Summer Wine, as disconnected from the rest of the UK as Cameron is from anyone on less than £250k per annum. At 59, I’m a youngster.
It’s outrageous really that my party has got itself into such a state with years of weak opposition, popular support for non-socialist policies and, until Corbyn, an absence of effective alternative leadership. It’s nothing less than disastrous and unless we change now we are doomed. The membership is old and dying. If we don’t get a grip within five years we will be gone forever.
A Perfect Storm Of Failure, Corruption And Arrogance.
I’ve been fascinated by and active in politics since the late 1970s. Never in my lifetime have I seen such a combination of mistakes and scandalous cock-ups. Brexit has been sabotaged by dithering and delay – and I’m quite ready to believe this is a calculated deceit. With the BBC, the bankers and the Twitterati renewing Project Fear on a daily basis, is it any wonder that the going is tough? Cameron resigned because he said we needed a Leave supporter to take charge but instead we have a Remainer, one of the worst performing government ministers ever. How, after six years of persistent failure at the Home Office, she became PM is beyond belief but even more incredible is that after her terrible election performance she is still in No. 10. It is ridiculous!
The failures are all too easy to see but let’s list them to be certain that the huge scale of this crisis is understood.
Brexit – Total failure to plan, perhaps deliberately, best illustrated by the absurd spectacle, just last month, of the Home Office commissioning analysis of the economic and social contributions and costs of EU citizens in Britain. Surely something that should have been done years ago? Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have both proved themselves to be lacking in courage and leadership skills. The bumptious fool Dr Liam Fox, who does seem to stick to his principles on Brexit, shames us by his foreign adventures, recently praising the murdering thug President Duterte of the Philippines as having ‘shared values’ with Britain.
NHS – Persistent deceit from ministers, including the utterly in-credible Jeremy Hunt, about how much money in real terms the health service is receiving. Scandalous failure to keep multiple promises about mental health having parity with physical health.
Democracy – The UK’s system of government is now a joke compared to other modern democracies. Our electoral system is primitive. Conservative and Labour parties conspire to keep the system as it is because it keeps them both in power. It is obvious that we should be moving towards some form of proportional representation, online voting and a radical shake-up of the House of Lords. MPs also need to be much more accountable. The terrible murder of Jo Cox has let too many of them off the hook that the expenses scandal put them on. Recently they have been whining about the abuse they get online. In general they deserve it for the terrible job they are doing. Also, they get protection from the police for such abuse. The police are useless when it’s a member of the public under attack. We need a job description for MPs, rights for constituents and a complaints procedure with teeth.
Social policy – I am ashamed at how Conservative ministers in reality are indistinguishable from the populist caricature of the ‘arrogant, uncaring, effing Tories’. The Grenfell Tower tragedy encapsulates everything that is wrong with the high-handed view that they take of the people who pay their wages.
Justice – After food, shelter and health what is more important than justice? The destruction of legal aid is one of the most dreadful developments in my lifetime. All governments delight in making more and more law but what use is it if it cannot be enforced? There is no justice if it is not available to everyone. I am delighted at the Supreme Court’s ruling that makes legal aid available once again for employment tribunals Without it employment law was literally useless and thousands have been deprived of their rights. And for his disastrous, destructive, incompetent and thoroughly nasty attitude the man who defines injustice in modern Britain is Chris Grayling. No other minster has more disgraced our party. He is unfit to be in government and why he remains anywhere near ministerial office is unbelievable. No one individual better epitomises the nasty, arrogant, incompetent Tory.
Prisons – There is no greater truth than that in a free society we are defined by how we treat those we send to jail. This is a terrible condemnation of Britain. Our prison system is a production line for turning petty criminals into alienated, aggressive, violent repeat offenders. There is no one who deserves the additional punishments we impose on top of deprivation of liberty. I would make an exception for Chris Grayling who really should be made to experience a taste of his own medicine. The Netherlands is closing prisons because it doesn’t send enough people to jail. We should swallow our pride and copy their system exactly.
Technology – As the nation that has led the world in virtually all new technologies, we are now falling a long way behind. The government has failed miserably to give enough priority to high speed internet. We will never catch up now and our children and our businesses are forever disadvantaged. Progress is hampered in development of new energy sources, transport and infrastructure by bureaucracy, endless bickering between special interest groups and weak strategic management. The EU has magnified all these problems and prevented progress in GM foods and other technologies that are essential to our future.
Transport – With Chris Grayling at the helm and the farce that is HS2, there is no hope for a sensible transport strategy. I simply don’t buy the argument that a slightly faster journey time between north and south will do anything to create a better future. Train fares are ludicrously high. The conditions commuters are expected to travel under are ridiculous. The Southern Rail scandal is a microcosm of government incompetence and inaction. It should have been re-nationalised at least a year ago and there should be massive fines and penalties on those responsible for the chaos, including individuals. I see no conflict with Conservative principles in re-nationalising the whole network. The mess that has prevailed since privatisation could not be any worse and compare us with railway networks and service on the continent for a true picture of our national shame and decay.
Environment – Technology and transport converge with environmental policy and this is a difficult, challenging area of policy. What we need is strong leadership – no, not the empty claims of Mrs May but the real leadership of Mrs Thatcher. Even the despicable Tony Blair showed more leadership than we have had from any current Conservative politician. We need to take bold decisions and act on them. Ecology and controlling pollution must be a real priority but we must not be distracted by the greeny loons and their endless prevarication and delays. I have no objection to fracking as long as it is strictly regulated and in recent visits to Ireland I have seen how forests of wind turbines do not destroy wonderful countryside and can have their own beauty, just as we now revere Victorian aqueducts and civil engineering. Most of all though we should racing ahead with tidal power. As an island it has to be our future and its potential is unlimited.
Northern Ireland – I hope one of the by-products of Brexit will be a united Ireland. There is no longer a real majority of unionists in the six counties and it only ever existed because of immigrants from Scotland. The UK’s shameful history in Ireland places a heavy obligation on us. We are one and the same people and the damage inflicted by the English Parliament on our neighbours must be put right. We are far closer to the Irish than we are to the French, the Dutch or the Belgians. As independent nations, with Ulster properly restored, we could be closer than ever and if Ireland wishes to remain in the EU, we should respect that.
Drugs Policy – No policy better demonstrates the incompetence, prejudice, cowardice and corruption of government ministers from all parties. Deaths from drug overdose have reached an all time high. There has been an explosion in highly toxic new psychoactive substances and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 has increased harms, deaths, associated crime and potency, exactly as was predicted, warnings the government chose to ignore. The government has refused to consider or take any expert advice on introducing legal access to medical cannabis, something that virtually all other modern democracies are moving forward on. Its continuing policy on cannabis defies scientific evidence and real-life experience from places where reform has been implemented. It also supports the criminal market, encourages street dealing, dangerous hidden cannabis farms and the production of poor quality, low-CBD, so-called ‘skunk’ cannabis.
Defence – A catalogue of cock-ups, dullards in charge and weak, indecisive leadership. In my view we should cancel the renewal of Trident and spend more on conventional weapons and defence measures which we may actually have to use. We should retain some battlefield nuclear weapons but invest more in our soldiers and their technology. We should also look after them far better when they leave the service
Foreign Affairs – The UK is the world superpower in ‘soft power’. Our culture, language, history give us more influence than any other nation and we should be proud to exercise it. We should have the courage to stand for our principles, independently of the USA and Europe. The £12 billion we give in international aid is far too much when there is real poverty at home but even if we halved the present budget we would still lead the world. We are responsible for the injustice perpetrated on the Palestinian people when we facilitated the seizure of their land in the 1940s. We should be standing up to Israel which has become an out-of-control monster. We created it and we must take responsibility for bringing it to order and helping it to live alongside its neighbours respectfully. Its conduct is unacceptable and we should be pursuing war crimes prosecutions against Netanyahu and many of his cronies.
Housing – The housing crisis needs a courageous, radical solution, not the pathetic, sticking plaster gimmicks and gestures that is all we have had for 50 years. Massive investment in social housing would create jobs and boost the economy all round. We shouldn’t hesitate. We shouldn’t fear a dramatic fall in house prices caused by massive extra supply. We have to get real and government must stop shirking its responsibility for a strategic role that only it can fill.
I have not yet decided whether I shall renew my membership. I’m not even sure if there is any future in the UK for me. Brexit was a great opportunity which has been sabotaged, perhaps fatally. Britain may well become a tourist destination, fascinating for the way such a small nation led the world for centuries. We are being led by weak, ineffectual, self-serving, out-of-touch and out-of date politicians. As the Conservative Party is dying, it is dragging Britain down with it.
Written by Peter Reynolds
August 6, 2017 at 4:20 pm
Posted in Politics
Tagged with austerity, authoritarian, banker, BBC, big government, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Chris Grayling, commuter, Conservative Party, David Cameron, defence, democracy, drugs policy, ecology, employment tribunal, Environment, EU, expenses scandal, foreign affairs, GM, Grenfell Tower, Home Office, House Of Lords, housing, HS2, international aid, internet, Ireland, Israel, Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy Hunt, Jo Cox, justice, Labour Party, Last of the Summer Wine, leadership, legal aid, Liam Fox, Margaret Thatcher, medical cannabis, mental health, Michael Gove, MP, Nanny state, nationalisation, Netanyahu, Netherlands, NHS, Northern Ireland, out of touch, Palestine, Philippines, President Duterte, prison, Project fear, proportional representation, railway, remainer, Sir Oliver Letwin, soft power, Southern Rail, technology, Theresa May, tidal power, Tony Blair, Tory, train fares, transport, Trident, twitterati, united Ireland, Westminster elite, wind turbine
Marvellous, Magnificent, Memorable and Moving Short Film. Watch It!
This beautifully produced short film, 12 minutes long and made in Northern Ireland speaks for itself. Please watch, enjoy and perhaps, as I did, burst into spontaneous applause at the end. Then share it far and wide, again and again. This is a message the world needs to hear.
Written by Peter Reynolds
April 27, 2014 at 3:17 pm
Tagged with cannabis, Northern Ireland, pain, short film
Was Tony Blair A Force For Good?
My Non-Appearance On Sunday Morning Live
Since Wednesday the BBC had been in touch every day. This morning they started calling me and testing my webcam and sound from 8.30am. They had me sitting at my desk from 9.45am, 15 minutes before the programme started. I was warned I could be in shot at anytime. I drank too much coffee. I did get a little nervous and jittery. I was desperate for a cigarette even though I gave up six months ago!
Who was that suave, debonair, good looking chap in the crisp white shirt on the background screens? Yours truly of course, waiting patiently for my big moment, trying not to sneer or laugh too raucously at the ridiculous first discussion on animals.
I had my notes blu-tacked to the window frame right behind my webcam, adjusted so that viewers would never lose deep, seductive eye contact with me.
“We’re coming to you now Peter”
“Stand by”
I fancy I can see Susanna Reid flushing slightly in anticipation of introducing me…
“Uh, sorry Peter, we’re not going to be able to come to you. Out of time I’m afraid.”
Such are the trials and tribulations of my life! Suddenly the programme was over.
Turning to far more important things, the dogs and I set off for the hills. My mobile rang and it was Anna from the BBC, apologising and promising me dinner and a hot night with Susanna all at the corporation’s expense. “No, sorry, I can’t be bought off. Call me tomorrow. I’m too busy now.”
On the panel in the studio had been Mary Whitehouse’s successor, frumpy Anne Atkins and the utter jerk, Francis Beckett. What a prat? Why would anyone want to listen to his obnoxious, ill considered views, delivered with all the grace of a blind, three legged rhino?
Was Tony Blair a force for good? This was the question I was supposed to be answering. The BBC had come to me as a result of this article. I had, of course, considered my response and this is what I intended to say.
Was Tony Blair A Force For Good?
I do not count myself as a Tony Blair supporter. I never voted for him. In fact, at all those elections I deliberately spoiled my ballot papers writing “no suitable candidate” across them. I am an admirer though.
I think you have to give him credit for a number of things. He rescued Labour from its madness and turned it into a credible and electable political party. That was good for democracy. He finished off the good work that Margaret Thatcher had done on the unions. He was her true successor. Now the only nutters that we have left are Tweedledum and Twitterdee from Unite and the mad and bad Bob Crowe from the railways.
You have to give him huge credit for Northern Ireland, for Kosovo and Sierra Leone. I think he was also responsible for a fundamental change in British politics in that he reconciled caring with competition. For the first time it was accepted that you could have a social conscience but still believe in business and the free market.
On Iraq, clearly it is a good thing that we got rid of Saddam Hussein although, personally, I think we should have assassinated him. If there was a moral justification for war, for shock and awe, then there was for assassination. Even if we had lost thousands of special forces that would have been better than hundreds of thousands of innocents. I do think that Blair became carried away with George Bush and that was a mistake. Bush will be forgotten long before Blair. He was not of the same calibre. All he had to offer was the might and power of America.
Fundamentally, what you have to ask is did Tony Blair act in good faith? I believe he did. I believe he is an honourable man. Look backwards from Blair to Thatcher and there’s noone else until Churchill and then Lloyd George. That is the company in which Tony Blair will be remembered. He is a great man.
The one thing I really don’t understand in this man of vision and intelligence is his conversion to Catholicism. I can just about accept his Christianity although why a man with his intellect needs organised religion I don’t know. I really can’t understand why he wants to be allied to the institution that has been responsible for more evil over the last 2000 years than any other. I think it demeans him. He has far, far more to offer the world than that stupid old bigot the Pope, for instance. It seems to me the Catholic Church will benefit far more from him than he will from it. That’s his business though.
Written by Peter Reynolds
August 29, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Posted in Biography, Politics, television, The Media, Walking The Dog
Tagged with admirer, America, animal, Anne Atkins, assassinate, BBC, big moment, bigot, blind, blu-tack, Bob Crowe, British politics, Business, calibre, caring, Catholicism, change, Christianity, Churchill, cigarette, coffee, competition, credible, credit, debonair, demean, democracy, discussion, dog, electable, election, evil, eye contact, forgotten, Francis Beckett, free market, frumpy, fundamental, George Bush, good faith, good looking, great man, hill, honourable, ill-considered, innocent, institution, intellect, intelligence, Iraq, jerk, jittery, Kosovo, Labour, LloydGeorge, mad and bad, madness, Margaret Thatcher, Mary Whitehouse, might, mistake, mobile, moral justification, nervous, Northern Ireland, nutter, obnoxious, out of time, Peter, political party, power, prat, programme, railway, reconciled, religion, remembered, rhino, ridiculous, Saddam Hussein, seductive, Sierra Leone, social conscience, special forces, spoiled ballot paper, Stand by, suave, successor, Sunday lunch, Sunday Morning Live, supporter, Susanna Reid, the PopeCatholic Church, three-legged, Tony Blair, trials and tribulations, Tweedledum, Twitterdee, union, Unite, vision, war, webcam, weeping
Keir Starmer – The Next Lord Widgery?
The scandalous decision not to prosecute PC Simon Harwood over the death of Ian Tomlinson is reverberating right across the world.
British justice has become a laughing stock and our proud history of freedom, liberty and fairness is heaped with derision – and deservedly so
When the establishment needs to dissemble and misinform it calls on its tame lawyers and paper tiger figureheads. Keir Starmer, the DPP, is clearly angling for his peerage and his place on the government roster of professional liars, deceivers and propagandists.
In 1972, when British soldiers murdered protestors on the streets of Londonderry, they wheeled out Lord Widgery who produced a report of such crass dishonesty and fundamental deception that it took a further enquiry lasting 12 years and costing £200 million to expose it as nonsense.
When millions across the world have witnessed the unprovoked assault from behind on Ian Tomlinson, they have wheeled out Keir Starmer, another tame QC, to demonstrate a complete absence of integrity and deliver a deeply corrupt, manipulative and unforgivable decision not to prosecute.
In the last 50 years more than 1,000 people have died while in police custody in the UK but not a single policeman has been prosecuted.
Is it any wonder that we have pond life like Raoul Moat feted and worshipped by the underclass when they suffer under the yoke of police oppression, when they see no justice nor fairness nor hope?
The truth is that PC Simon Harwood and Raoul Moat are two peas from the same pod. Police websites, such as the notorious Inspector Gadget, reveal serving police officers’ attitudes just as perverse as those that supported the Raoul Moat Facebook page. The police are completely out of control, ineffective, mismanaged and corrupt.
It took 30 years for the Metropolitan Police to admit that one of its officers was responsible for the death of Blair Peach.
The suggestion from the extreme left is that we are being softened up and desensitised against a future where with swingeing public expenditure cuts we can expect to see riots in the streets and more police violence. I don’t buy this conspiracy theory but I am desperately worried for the future of British justice when men like Keir Starmer are in charge.
It isn’t just incompetence. It isn’t just misjudgement. There is clear intent to pervert the course of justice. He knew that the six month limit on bringing a charge of common assault was passing. He knew that the conflict between expert evidence was for a jury to determine. He knew that never was it more essential “in the public interest” for a prosecution to be brought.
Keir Starmer is every bit as dangerous to the fabric of our society as any terrorist or subversive. Look at how many lives Lord Widgery’s behaviour was responsible for. Look at how his lies prolonged the violence and fed the divisions within Northern Ireland. The same thing is happening all over again.
PC Simon Harwood, Raoul Moat, Keir Starmer. They are all the same. They are all a danger to society. They should all be behind bars.
Written by Peter Reynolds
July 24, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Posted in Politics
Tagged with assault, attitudes, behind bars, Blair Peach, Bloody Sunday, British justice, British soldiers, common assault, conspiracy theory, corrupt, crass, danger, death, deceiver, deception, derision, desensitised, died, Director of Public Prosecutions, dishonesty, dissemble, DPP, enquiry, expert evidence, extreme left, fabric of society, Facebook, fairness, feted, figurehead, freedom, history, hope, Ian Tomlinson, in the public interest, incompetence, ineffective, inegrity, Inspector Gadget, intent, jury, justice, Keir Starmer, laughing stock, lawyer, liar, liberty, Londonderry, Lord Widgery, manipulative, Metropolitan Police, misinform, misjudgement, mismanaged, murdered, nonsense, Northern Ireland, out of control, paper tiger, PC Simon Harwood, peerage, perverse, perverting the course of justice, police custody, police oppression, policeman, pond life, propagandist, prosecute, protestors, public expenditure cuts, QC, Raoul Moat, riots, roster, scandalous, subversive, tame, terrorist, the establishment, UK, underclass, unforgivable, unprovoked, website, worshipped, yoke
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry
A dreadful set of conclusions. An appalling injustice. A masterful performance by David Cameron. It goes a long way to restore some faith in British justice after too many examples of it failing miserably.
Where from here? Justice must be seen to be done which means that the families of those who were murdered are entitled to expect charges to be brought. They are also entitled to damages from the British government.
This makes me ashamed of those who lost control on that terrible day 38 years ago. It also makes me proud of my country that, eventually, justice has been done.
Truth is often best revealed through art. I have always thought that the film “In the Name Of The Father” illustrates so well some of the evil and injustice that was perpetrated on the people of Northern Ireland.
In the end, Northern Ireland is a wonderful story of the triumph of good over evil and hope over despair. Bloody Sunday is a terrible episode in this story. Today those who fought for justice are vindicated and triumphant. Those who died are heroes and martyrs to the peace that we now enjoy. God bless them.
Written by Peter Reynolds
June 15, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Posted in Politics
Tagged with appalling, art, ashamed, Bloody Sunday, British government, British justice, charges, damages, David Cameron, despair, dreadful, episode, evil, failing, film, good over evil, heroes, In The Name Of The Father, injustice, martyrs, masterful, murdered, Northern Ireland, peace, people, proud, triumph, triumphant, truth, vindicated, wonderful