Gurkhas - Betrayed again!

To some degree I have been supportive of the necessary cuts to get our country economy back in line (I only hope they reverse some of them when things are better, but I know it is probably a mere pipe-dream). 

I even understand that cuts in the military are necessary (though as with most of the cuts, the choices in what is cut seems to be front-line services rather than dealing with back-room excess and wastage)

What is intolerable is that a single small regiment (3% of the army) have over 50% of the compulsory redundancy. How convenient for the government that the majority of the soldiers serving in this regiment do not have the right to vote in the UK. Even more convenient is the fact that the Gurkhas will be using a different system to calculate their redundancy pay so they will receive less money.

The Gurkhas have a long and proud history, for more than 200 years young Nepalese men have left their homes to fight and die for Britain. For years they revived less pay, and had no right to remain in the country they fought for when they retired. Now having won a huge battle to obtain the right to citizenship of Britain, they are now being made redundant.

Nick Clegg - our Valiant? Deputy Prime Minister was so loud in the fight to get them citizenship and equal pay, seems to be being as meek as a mouse now they are getting the sack as a result.

It is about time our politicians and the people of the UK recognised our Military Personnel. They fight and die for what we believe in, on distant shores far from the ones they love. They deserve more than to be used as mere puppets and cost cutters in a pathetic party political game.

Some redundancy may be necessary,  but let's make them equal and as few as possible. Look at the contracts the military make in detail, and get value for money rather than just throwing it away. Look at excessive bureaucracy and cut it down, then when we have cut wastage back as much is possible then we can look at redundancy's, though hopefully with the money saved only voluntary redundancy's would be necessary.

Outside of that, it is up to the people of the UK to support our service personnel, both active and retired, especially in these hard times - 

I put out a call across the UK, to all businesses - Give a discount to servicemen, both current and retired. Lets show them our appreciation and make them realise how proud of the we are!

I out a call to all Communities, actively support the family's and personnel in your community. Family's that live off base far too often lack the support that those surrounded by other military family's get - lets work together and make sure they all get the support they need.

Excuses for Riots

A large number of our politicians are showing that they are not much better than the Rioters them selves, as rather than just condemning the riots they try and twist them to their own political ends.

Link to Guardian

The original Riot in Tottenham may have started out from a legitimate protest (the full results from the IPCC has not been released yet), but no riot is excusable - and the spread of the riots was just Thuggery.

Various left wing social commentators are finding excuses for the Rioters, despite them committing inexcusable offences against their communities. They had no placards, they gave no protest and half of the ones who have been interviewed cant come up with a coherent excuse.

"We did it to show that we had no money today

"We did it to show the police we can do what we want"

when they pointed out the police wernt hurt but it was the shop keepers

"We did it to show the rich we can do what we want"

didn't they notice that most of the shops hit were small locally owned businesses.

We have brought up a generation with a large number of people that think that the rules do not apply to them, that there are no consequences and that they can do what they want. When looking at the causes of the riots we need to look at that as well, not only the current situation that led to the riots but also the failings of our society that led them to feel it was OK to do it.

There has been a bright side to all this though - the communities coming together to condemn the rioters and to clean up and rebuild. Both young and old coming out and helping each other and giving shining examples of true British spirit that haven't been seen in years.

Now if we can just build on the positive, maybe there is hope for our society yet.

London Riots spread country wide.

The side effects of the policy allowing young people to run riot has brought riots to the entire country.

For years we have pandered to our kids, allowed them to ignore the police and teachers and attacked authority figures that have stood up to them. Punishments have been reduced to meaningless in schools so our youth feel there are no consequences to their actions. The result is Riots, Mass looting and the death toll to several communities.

They are about to learn there are consequences, when no jobs or businesses return to their communities for fear it happens again. The scars will remain as no one comes to repair the damage, and the number of jobless and impoverished families will grow.

We need to stem the tide now, the government needs announce that they will name and shame those guilty, so they face the wrath of their friends and family. Any over the age of 14 need to be treated as adults in the face of the law with the consequences that come with it. We need to announce the punishments now to prevent further spread.

More importantly we need to take a long look at our society. We need to show our children that there are consequences when the consequences are minor, long before they get to this stage. Discipline needs to come back in to schools and respect for the police needs to be rebuilt. 

We need a society where common sense wins, rather than instant reaction. Where when a parent hears that their child is in trouble - they find out why rather than immediately believing either side. Then stand up for the side that is in the right. In 'The good old days' parents immediately believed the Teacher or Police - now they immediately believe the child. 

Neither is right, but it is the lack of consequences caused by the latter that have enabled the current problems to arise. Our society has had a habit of jumping from one extreme to the other, where the middle ground is needed, and hopefully after the dust has cleared and the rebuilding commences we will not see more knee jerk reactions but a constructive dialogue to rebuild a safer, fairer and stronger society.

Legalised Terroism

An Israeli General has come out against the terrorism Israeli settlers are performing against the Palestinians in the West Bank (Link).

What I ask is how can we continue to support a regime that refuses to step in against this and still claim to have a 'War on Terror'?

Israel has repeatedly ignored international law (the West Bank settlements are considered illegal under international law) and refuses to keep their citizens in check to protect the native population. Not only that but when the Palestinians strike back - they bomb them with advanced military weapons. We just sent troops to Libya to aid rebels fighting against just this kind of situation.

We cannot have one rule for our friends and another for those we don't like. Right is Right and what is happening in the West Bank is not right by any stretch of the imagination. There should be a call for international sanctions against the terrorist regime in Jerusalem.

We (meaning the UK/US/UN) created the problem when we created Israel after WW2, we then turned a blind eye during their wars of expansion (though they claimed it was to increase their area of defence).

We have ignored repeated bombing and retaliation, and the Palestinians being subjugated and trodden underfoot. Enough is Enough!

Yes what happened to the Jews in WW2 was terrible and must never be allowed to happen again - but that doesn't give them free reign to  terrorise others.

All it takes for evil to win is for a good man to remain silent - so lets shout at the top of our lungs that we as a civilised society will not accept this!

We need to bring sanctions against Israel and protect the Palestinian population. We need to force Israel to come to the table for discussions.

Please join the facebook group I just created to work towards this Bring sanctions against Israel!

Other Stories in the News

Hidden between the lines of the Hacking Scandal are a couple of important other stories.

University Charges

1/3rd of university's have been given the go ahead to charge £9000 but the fees office. Students will be in uproar - while failing to see the bigger picture. This policy is going to cost the government - not save. As students will be earning more before they have to start repaying. The numbers going to university haven't been hugely effected, so there will still be far more graduates than jobs.

We need to seriously look at the goals we set - with UCAS trying to get the school league tables based on university attendance, more pressure is put on schools to get kids in to university, rather than looking at what is best for the student.

We need to remove the fallacy that our society has created, that if you don't go to university you have failed and look at life skills and the job market. University should be for the academic elite, what ever their social background - not for everybody we can cram in.

As I have said before - cut the number of places - increase the entry requirements, and fully fund them all. Degrees become valuable again and the government saves a fortune.

Equality Commission

The equality commission want the legal definition of discrimination expanded to include religion, as the result of 4 cases going through the courts.

For 2 of the cases I agree, though I would like to see the details.

A British Airways Clerk was sent home for refusing to take off a necklace with a cross. I have to agree with this one, would they have done it if it was a different religion, and what she was wearing had no bearing on her being able to perform her duties.

A nurse was given a desk job for similar reasons - I would be interested in the details of this, as they did not stop her working, and it could have been on hygiene grounds, with no one being allowed to wear necklaces - if this is the case I don't have an issue, if it was just because it was a cross then it is a different matter all together.

The next two are more complex.

A relationship councillor was sacked for refusing to give advice to gay people. So he was being discriminated against for discriminating against other people. Unlike the earlier two, this has a direct effect on his being able to do his job - something he was refusing to do. If his religion had said he couldn't give advice to black people, there would have been no question about his being fired - why should gays be any different?

The last one is similar, with a registrar refusing to conduct same sex civil ceremonies.

The question here is one of where should the line be drawn - I have some pretty specific opinions on this. If the clerk was insisting on wearing the necklace visibly, where there is a rule that no one is allowed to do this, then she doesn't have a leg to stand on, as long as she would have been able to place the pendant under her uniform.

For the nurse, the same apples - though there would be a hygiene reason not to be allowed to wear it at all (but that would have to apply to everyone and all jewellery, including wedding bands)

For the last too, I see no excuse - if a job is going to make you do something against your religious belief, take a different job. If you were in the police, and your religion said you could not take any form of action against another member of your religion - you would not be allowed to stay in the job - letting a criminal go because they were of the same religion would not be acceptable. If your religion says you are not allowed to drive, you don't take a job as a taxi driver.

Religion shouldn't be an excuse to flout general rules - as long as the rules have sound reasoning and don't discriminate specifically. Equally the law should come first (if the law says you cant carry a knife, and your religion requires you too - British law comes first, if the law is fundamentally wrong, it should be changed rather than bypassed for a small group).

If you are not allowed to discriminate against someone because of their religion, why should they be able to discriminate against you.

Hacking scandal shows a society in crisis.

As more details of the hacking scandal emerge - the amount of power the media has over our society is shown in its full light.

Details of senior members of the police force allowing the prior investigation to remain unchallenged, and the head of the original investigation now being a well paid columnist for News International in The Times (Link).

David Cameron having ignored people from all sides (including the now Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Lord Ashdown) to employ Andy Coulson as his Director of Communications and until the last day or so refusing to try and stop their take over of BskyB.

Tony Blair and Gordon Browns governments were equally in bed with the media, with memo's being leaked showing them trying to silence questions from with in their own party.

News International have lied to the police, lied to parliament and there is evidence that there was a deliberate cover up on behalf of News International (Link).

That a single section in society, and one that should be there to protect has run so rampant shows the peril we are in. The media's ability to hold people in prominent positions to a level above the norm led us down this track. 

MP's are supposed to represent real people, but we try and hold them to unrealistic ideals. Reports on their personal lives don't effect their ability to govern, but do have real effect on their friends and family, people we all strive to protect. We need to crack down on the media, while giving them the freedom to report - they need to be able to be held to account, and prove that what they do to people lives are in the public interest, not just in the interest of selling more papers.

Currently the only party with out immediate and direct links to the Media, and specifically news international are the Liberal Democrats. We are the only ones that can bring about this change with out bias or Rupert Murdoch pulling the strings behind our backs!

Nick Clegg agreeing to back Labour in the defeat of the BskyB deal is a start down this road - hopefully the other partys will follow us towards a fairer and more open society.

Newspaper Crisis

The News of the World is soon to depart our news stands - a casualty of a greedy empire out of control.

Hundreds of jobs, and a long (168 years) and illustrious history are being sacrificed to save one woman, who should have already been fired. Rebekah Brooks was Editor at the time, and was either in collusion or completely incompetent if that level of criminal activity was happening in her news room.

This is also a bid to save the deal that will extend the empire, the purchase of BskyB in full - a deal already fraught with competition questions, and now with the extra slap of a big question over the integrity of News Corp.

Even the integrity of our two main partys is called in to question over this, with Andy Coulson (the former head of communications for David Cameron's Conservative Party, and Deputy Editor at the time of the hacking) possibly being arrested today. 

Labour don't get away clean though, despite Ed Miliband demanding change and that the government needs to be seen to take a firm stand to bring the press back in to line - but his own head of strategy, Tom Baldwin is another former News International Journalist who urged the Shadow Cabinet in January not to say anything "which appears to be attacking a particular newspaper group out of spite" and not to associate hacking to News Corporation's attempt to takeover BSkyB.

How did we let this happen? Over recent years the press have gained more and more control over our country, with politicians too scared of bad headlines and exposes to stand against them. 

Now we end up with Trial by Media (luckily two newspapers (The Sun and The Mirror, with The Sun being another News International paper) are being tried for contempt of court over reporting of the Jo Yeates case), and the news papers running riot over anything they think will sell a paper.

Do not get me wrong, I believe in freedom of the press, and that they have to have the power to investigate and keep government and business honest. That requires a degree of honesty, integrity and control that they no longer seem to possess though. There is a big difference over what is in the public interest and what the public is interested in.

Unfortunately our papers can no longer be trusted to do this - they have become the big business that needs investigation, rather than warriors for truth and justice keeping our society honest.

Breaches of the law and privacy aren't calculated against the good they will do, but will the extra advertising and sales be worth the fines they will incur.

What we need is a restructuring of press controls, and independent organisation with real power. A Committee made up from the Judiciary, various aspects of the media, the government and the common people. One with real power to investigate and then act on the investigations, weather that is to forward on to the Police, the Government or to place realistic fines themselves.

The fines would have to be large, most large media organisations will not notice a million pound fine, a large expose will generate far more income than that - the fines need to be large enough to hurt, to remove all profits make by that article and then some. That might make the media stop and think before acting.

If we fail to do this, then we risk the media gaining more and more control over our country, till the government become little more than puppets for the all powerful news barons . . .

Why the cuts are Necessary, a layman's guide.

Ok, quick explanation of why all the government cuts are necessary, very much in layman's terms

I am leaving out GDP, as that figure has nothing to do with government income and only has any point if tax was at 100%

Lets look at a family, they are comfortably off and earn £51,400 per year after tax.

They have been spending too much on credit cards though so owe £77,100 (this is 20% more than they earn) to credit cards and don't have a mortgage or house to secure these on, so there is nothing to sell to repay them other than the items they have purchased them selves (which will have dropped in value, or been consumed). This is 151% of what they earn each year - so if they spend every penny just on paying off debt, didn't eat or pay rent it would still take 1.5 years to pay off!

Because of their lifestyle, they are giving money to their elderly parents who have no pension or savings so are having to pay it out of current funds.

With all of this they are spending £66,900 each year, dispute their already heavy debt. Which means they are spending £15,500 more each year than they earn (that's a 20% increase in their debt just the next year), and as interest rises on the debt, this will go up with out increasing spending any more.

here's those figures in a more succinct format.

£51,400 Income

£66,900 Expenditure (120% of income)

£77,100 Current debt (151% of annual income)

£15,500 annual increase in debt (20% of debt)

If a family was in this condition, they would be expected to go bankrupt as they would not be given any more loans and wouldn't be able to cover the debt.

Change those numbers from thousands to billions and that was the state of the country at the end of 2010, and it has gotten worse since.

If the UK goes bankrupt, no other country will trade with us - we rely on imports for most of our food and no longer really have a manufacturing base. That would instantly make us a third world country begging to survive. There would be no pensions, no retirement, no benefits and no NHS - and that is the only alternative to cuts! (The Thatcher government dealt with the last massive public debt by selling off all our utilities, we don't really have anything left to sell).

So what I ask is - is it worth putting up with cuts for a few years while we get this sorted, or would your rather face the alternative?