GOOD NEWS OR BAD???

TERRIBLE NEWS FOR THE GREAT PEOPLE’S PARTY

Rumours of the Labour Party’s Central Planning Office blowing a fuse have been swirling around the ether since latest British manufacturing production figures were released.

It seems that contrary to endlessly-repeated predictions of the total collapse of manufacturing along with the rest of the economy (rumours primed by Labour since the first years of Mrs Thatcher of course, even though manufacturing was higher at the end of her period than at the beginning), British manufacturing growth is holding its own and set for an increase even as that in most of Europe still declines. This is because Britain’s share of trade with the rest of the world is increasing while the EU atrophies into a total bureaucratic meltdown – apart from Germany of course, whose high-tech machine-tools and automobiles are still rising in demand.

Labour IT wizards have admitted that there must be a glitch in their algorhythms and are furiously working to fix it. Of course, any improvement in the economy is a disaster for Labour, as they thrive best when the economy is collapsing, both when they are in AND out of power.

On the technical front, one IT insider confided that they may have given Osbourne too high a negativity rating. This should apparently have been minus 100 and not minus 10,000, a rating given because he is an upper-class toff. “In future,” admitted the technician, “we may have to set this variable according to actual performance rather than a person’s social origin. But to be fair, nobody expected a toff to have a clue, and so this has taken us all by surprise.”

Still, analysts assume that Labour is working on some sort of spin to explain to the people why this improvement in manufacturing is in fact a purely spurious and completely temporary delusion and the figures do in fact on the contrary predict eventual disaster. Meanwhile the Labour Economic Planning Department is still proposing extra borrowing and spending to “create jobs”, and thus like its soulmates over in France demanding an end to “austerity” and a new spending splurge to “boost growth.” It remains to be seen whether the British public will buy this breathtakingly-daring economic cunning plan, which is one which the Germans – so far – have resisted. The astonishing thing is that all those countries now in an economic death spiral because of too much borrowing and debt are proposing to indulge in yet more borrowing and debt. This must either be extraordinarily clever or totally insane, and the jury is still out on that one.


NOTES FROM THE PRESS:
A) “Just days after receiving a Queen’s Awards for Enterprise to mark its exporting performance, the company said it will expand its Stoke-on-Trent production facilities, with the creation of 230 jobs.

Its sales rose 6pc to £70.2m last year, helped by fast growing sales in the US, Asia and South America. More than 80pc of its turnover comes from overseas.

Kevin Oakes, chief executive, said: “We sell into more than 130 countries. I have no doubt that’s largely because we manufacture in the UK. Our overseas customers see a real value in the Made in England backstamp. It’s not just about the quality and design, it’s about the integrity of the business as a whole – the service we offer and the fact that we stand by our products and our values.”

B) “Thursday’s promising manufacturing output figures may have come as a surprise to many, but not John Nollett. The managing director of £19m turnover Pailton Engineering, which was founded in his grandfather’s garden shed in1969, has long been a cheerleader for the prospects of British production. Even when politicians were, as Nollett puts it, “pushing manufacturing to one side thinking it was dead”.

“I own a German manufacturing business and an English one – I see [similarities] between German and British skills. And ours exceed what they have – even if they’re better at marketing themselves.” “

 

Crisis? What crisis?

Why don’t politicians tell the truth?

You can blame Osborne if you like, but the British public also has to take some blame. They didn’t protest while Brown was pursuing his moronic borrow and spend binge and at the slightest sign of “austerity” they whinge even more.

“Cuts”? The “cuts” are insignificant compared to what is really needed. VAST sums have to be cut from benefits and indeed from most other areas: quangoes, advisors, consultants, H&SE, the EU and so on.

Otherwise we are finished. Why are politicians unwilling to do this? Because the public A) understands nothing about national economics (despite knowing you can’t endlessly spend more than your income) and B) expects a magic solution and therefore C) Any government doing what is really necessary (which is going to be VERY painful) will be politically punished, and in the UK’s case involve handing back power to the very same party that caused the problem in the first place.

The British (and above all Scottish Labour Party voting fodder) public will vote Labour in at the next election in the hope of the latter, and things will get WORSE.

It is not looking good, but it will be even worse elsewhere, in France for a start.

 The bizarre thing about about this crisis is the endless stream of ministers and unelected morons in Brussels claiming the crisis is over or improving whereas MUCH worse is yet to come.

 

Eastleigh

Clegg is SOOOOO irritating. Let’s review the facts, shall we?

- the Lib-Dems lost 14% of their vote and defeated UKIP by a paltry 4%
- the outgoing MP was a criminal (a liar perverting the course of justice)
- the party leader is a liar (about covering up some party big-wig groping the totty)
- the country is in a shambles, with debt and immigration going up, the lowest % of home ownership in 30 years, thousands of rich foreign mafiosi and poor developing-world immigrants taking over London, the NHS killing people, NO decision about LHR, energy running out, inflation threatened, welfare out of control and so on …..

Instead of beaming about how clever he is Clegg should be more humble and promise to do better. “Humble? Wot, Me?”

Pity about the missing 4% – UKIP winning really WOULD have made life interesting.

So, Cameron will stumble on, with the Cleggelian ball-and-chain in tow. But at least a ball-and-chain kept schtumm instead of imitating Coco The Clown (sorry, Coco …..)

 

LOGIC à la EUROZEALOTS

They have both their own language and their own logic in Brussels. This takes a bit of learning, but once you’ve got the idea it helps to determine the propaganda quotient of the stuff put out by some of the 3,250 Brussels penpushers who earn more than the British PM and pay minimal tax.

To save you time, this quotient is in fact 100%, which after a while becomes bleedin’ obvious, but is cunningly hidden – as with all good propaganda – within a web of lies, exaggeration and incomprehensible jargon.

As for the logic, here is a typical example:

A) Many non-EU countries do a vast amount of trade with the EU.

B) If the UK is out of the EU it will have the same status as these many other countries … but

C) …….. will not be able to do a vast amount of trade with the EU.

YUP – sucks, doesn’t it. But it is the level at which these people operate. Let’s try a bit of home-grown logic as a yardstick by which to compare it:

A)  Many non- EU countries do a vast amount of trade with the EU.

B) Britain is one of many countries.

C) Britain out of the EU could do a vast amount of trade with the EU.

Yup – that sounds more like it.

Of course, the EU would be so pissed off at losing our TWENTY MILLION QUID NET PER DAY to splash out on the vast salaries, little tax and immense perks of the Brusselomafia – so much so that they might start a “trade war”. BUT …….

A) ….. this would be against the rules of the WTO and HILARIOUSLY …….

B) … they flog US more than we flog THEM, so …..

C) ……. WHO WOULD BE THE LOSERS, HA, HA?

Still, keep it up Borroso, for whom the crisis is over, and this despite the fact that none of the root causes have been – or indeed can be – remedied given the vast difference in economies inside Euroland, which of course their own economists told them about BEFORE they let in Greece based on a pack of lies cooked up by Goldman-Sachs. And meanwhile SIXTY PER CENT of Greek and Spanish youth is unemployed – a ruined and disillusioned generation.

THANK YOU EU and EU NATIONAL LEADERS – you REALLY have done a good job.

PS Incidentally, Goldman-Sachs executives are apparently making millions in betting on food prices, while millions of the world’s poorest are ever hungrier as prices rise. This gives you a clue about the morality of the people the EU likes to bed.

 

Housing the People

Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless. Millions are paying very high rents. Tens of millions not only do not own their own home but have NO HOPE OF EVER DONG SO.

The solution is mind-bogglingly EASY:

Ban the ownership of more than ONE dwelling until EVERYONE has their OWN dwelling. The idea that some Arab sheik can own properties all over the place for one foreign family while thousands of British people have NOWHERE to call their own is OBSCENE.

Oh, and the idea that the Duke of Westminster among others can own vast estates including large areas of London handed down from feudal times is ALSO obscene. Only the fact that we are used to it and it seems therefore “normal” prevents people from understanding the extent of this obscenity. Much as I admire Her Maj, the idea that she has five vast palaces empty for most of the year while tens of thousands of her subjects have no home to call their own is ALSO obscene.

These, however, are obscenities that ALL political parties seem quite happy to live with. Of course, none of their MPs are homeless, or we might see a different atttitude.

As for the Labour Party, their ONLY housing policy in the last government was to favourize “buy-to-let”. This of course eliminates them from any understanding whatsoever of either morality or “socialism” in the truest sense, not that regurgitated by the Trades Unions et al.

So, crocodile tears from the political establishment about the “plight of the homeless”, but NO JUSTICE. Funnily, enough, the last person to try to increase the number of people owning their own properties was the eternally-vilified Mrs Thatcher.

YUP – Man is indeed insane. Does he even deserve to survive?

 

Prisoners Can Vote ……

More lunacy. Could this be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

A) If you break the law then presumably you disagree with it.

B) The law is made by Parliament.

C) Voters elect the parliament.

D) ERGO, to give prisoners the vote is giving people who don’t agree with the law the right to vote to make it.

And presumably, if the prison population exceeds that of non-prisoners, the former could then vote laws to imprison the innocent?

The whole thing is surreally insane. Is there NO government with the guts to stop this nonsense?

 

TURNOUT = 32%

The analysis is clear, but what is the SOLUTION?

These people have the POWER. Just like the EU – they have subverted democracy to their own ends.

I actually wonder if it isn’t all a Machiavellian plot. Treat us with such contempt that in the end – punch-drunk – we just can’t be bothered and retreat to the shells of our family and clan. Then of course they play on the mass-psychosis of “We can’t do anything anyway.”

Which of course is TRUE as long as ignorance and apathy reigns – as it does … UNTIL things get so bad that we revolt.

We always DO revolt in the end, but things have to get REALLY bad first, because basically we are hard-working, civilised people who believe in “democracy”. THAT TOO, the powers depend on. The problem is that too few people see how the democratic system has been abused.

 However, there is also the old English saying: “The worm has turned.” As a well-qualified worm, I feel myself very close to the turning point ……

As I said yesterday, the ONLY winner when nearly SEVEN IN TEN people just can’t be bothered is fascism. WHICH LEADER SAID ….?

“Results when the vast majority of people don’t vote are meaningless – just like union block votes or those where only the 200 vote out of  the 10,000 in the union ……”

NONE OF THEM …… All Clegg can say is that he is “sad”, NOT for democracy, but for the party cronies who’ve lost their seats.

CHRIST WHAT A FARCE.

 

SORT IT OUT DAVE … OR ELSE

If he doesn’t sort the EU out he’s had it.

These cretins now want a SEVEN PER CENT INCREASE, at a time when THANKS TO THEM (plus the lunatic Zapatero of course) HALF of Spain’s workforce is UNEMPLOYED.

Meanwhile we have – just for example – TEN BILLION QUID more to spend to comply with yet another EU directive – on cookies. Yes, cookies are irritating sometimes, but manageable. I CERTAINLY don’t want TEN BILLION QUID spent on some ludicrous EU system.

Oh – the top people in the EU are paid TWICE OR MORE as much as most national leaders, PLUS vast benefits and pay LITTLE TAX. Is Dame Ashton TWICE AS IMPORTANT AS YOU, DAVE? That of course is the not so subliminal MESSAGE to the plebs in awarding themselves vast salaries. “Golly!! Van Rompo is paid THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND EUROS AND LIVES IN A PALACE THAT COST THREE HUNDRED MILLION EUROS, so HE MUST BE IMPORTANT.”

Whereas in FACT if he disappeared tomorrow NOBODY outside Brussels would notice and NOTHING would be lost – ON THE CONTRARY we could have out BILLIONS back.

This is all LEGALISED THEFT, Mr Cameron. Sort it out – tell them to GET LOST.

Oh, and if you have any time left, sort out INFRASTRUCTURE (The Heathrow situation is ludicrous – FORTY YEARS or more successive governments have failed to prioritise this problem . Do you WANT us to lose our place in the international world? The CITY will be next at this rate.), PENSIONS, HOUSING, LUNATIC BENEFITS INCLUDING TO IMMIGRATION, the ISLAMISATION of large areas, “FAITH SCHOOLS”, THE NHS (Why do we have to doctor to the world?), EDUCATION, the ARMED FORCES (do we have functioning aircraft carriers with planes or not? I can’t keep up), USELESS AND UNWANTED AID TO INDIA and ALL THE REST OF THE SHAMBLES ….

Nobody says it’s easy given the lunatic bunch that preceded you, but you did tell us you would DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ALL, didn’t you? That’s why we VOTED for you, isn’t it?

 

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

Francis Maude has advised motorists to keep a jerry
can of fuel in their garage in case of a tanker driver strike.

I’ve seen some pathetic things from governments, but this one is right up there with the best.

A) Storing petrol is dangerous, not to say illegal; there may well be some horrible deaths and injuries because of this.

B) Such stockpiling will only ensure stocks run out faster.

C) It could lead to a spate of thefts from private garages by East-European immigrants and others, but with any luck they’ll still be too busy ripping the lead of church and the wiring from power supplies.  Sorry – not very PC, but to be honest I’ve just about had PC.

D) It would only make any difference for a few days anyway.

E) It’s for the govt to ensure supplies – SACK all the strikers. If they think they are undervalued presumably someone else will snap them up as soon as they are free. While you’re at it, do the same with the tube drivers AND the bankers.

This reminds me, I must see: “One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” once again.

 

UK TAXATION

This is taken from “The Daily Mail”,
because it is so good – as is
often the case with the Mail of course.

500 million reasons why they can’t afford NOT to cut our taxes.

UK Government Tax Policy

• The Government takes £460 billion a year in taxes – two-fifths of everything we earn, which is twice as much as communist China.
• We each work five months of the year solely to pay taxes. Only then do we start earning for ourselves.
• Britain’s tax code is the biggest in the world. The current edition of Tolley’s, the accountants’ tax guide, runs to 14,500 pages – twice as big as when Gordon Brown became Chancellor in 1997. There are plenty of hiding places in that jungle.
• And people resent tax because so much is wasted. Bhs boss Sir Philip Green’s 2010 spending review found Whitehall could save £600 million on phone bills alone. ‘No business could survive that level of waste,’ he concluded.

How do we compare?

• Our high taxes make avoidance more profitable. Britain’s top rate is 50 per cent; America’s is just 35 per cent. Our capital gains tax is 28 per cent; theirs is just 15 per cent. In the EU, only Scandinavia has higher top rates; outside the EU, nobody does.
• Worldwide evidence shows plainly: set taxes too high and people will avoid them. They set up avoidance schemes, take themselves or their money abroad or simply retire.

The 50% tax rate

• Although the Treasury has yet to release its formal study on the impact of a 50 per cent tax rate on growth, the early indicators are worrying; latest tax receipts from self-assessment forms – those used by the country’s richest – are down by half a billion pounds.
• It is an example of what economists call the Laffer Curve, after the American economist Arthur Laffer, who discovered this simple truth: high tax rates actually bring in less money for the Treasury than lower ones, because they result in greater tax avoidance.
• The reason why tax avoidance is rife among our highest earners is because our taxes are too high and too complex.

The Effect of Reducing Tax

• In April 2008, Chancellor Alistair Darling imposed a £30,000 tax on ‘non-doms’ – high-flyers who work in the UK but are domiciled abroad. More than 16,000 of them simply moved their affairs overseas, resulting in a net loss for the Treasury.
• You see the same in America. A 2008 study found that 80,000 people migrated to the nine US states with no local income taxes, while the ten states with the highest taxes lost 129,000 residents and $10 billion (£6.31 billion) of income.
• And if you want the rich to pay more, cut taxes! In 1979, Chancellor Geoffrey Howe chopped the top tax rate from 83 per cent (yes, really) to 60 per cent. Before the cut, the top one per cent of taxpayers paid only 11 per cent of the total tax revenue. By 1988, the same 250,000 people were paying 14 per cent of it.
• When Nigel Lawson sliced the rate further to 40 per cent, receipts from the top earners rose to 21 per cent of the total. By halving the top rate, Howe and Lawson doubled the share paid by the highest earners.
• In America, after George W. Bush’s 2003 tax cuts, the taxes paid by $1 million-plus earners more than doubled in just three years. It is the same everywhere. When India cut taxes in 1997, ‘experts’ predicted a loss of revenue but they were proved wrong. When Canada cut top tax rates in 1981, receipts from high earners went up. When Russia replaced its complex system with a flat-rate tax of 13 per cent in 2001, receipts rose by a quarter.

The Contribution of the UK Rich

• The highest-earning one per cent of Britons pay £47 billion in income tax – almost 30 per cent of the total and an amount equivalent to half the annual running costs of the NHS.Si
• Since 2000, the share contributed by this top-earning group has increased from 22.2 to 27.7 per cent, largely because there are now so many more millionaires.

The Flatrate Tax System

• The World Economic Forum reckons tax is the key factor in doing business with a country, but a 2010 study by accountants KPMG ranked Britain only 83rd out of 86 countries for tax competitiveness.
• A 2004 survey showed that the 20 fastest-growing countries all had low marginal tax rates. And the dozen or more of those countries (including several ex-Soviet bloc nations) that have adopted low, flat taxes have no plans to change.
• The flat tax, which is gaining traction across the world, makes tax both low and simple. There are no top rates, just a single tax rate for everyone. The poorest – on less than about £12,000 a year – pay nothing. Loopholes are scrapped.
• Because there is only one rate – it would be about 22 per cent in the UK – a flat tax is easy to calculate and difficult to avoid. The tax form can fit on to a single side of paper. There are fewer distortions and disincentives. And more transparency about what people – senior civil servants, say – should pay.

Some people say that a government running huge deficits cannot afford to cut taxes. In reality, it cannot afford not to.