Greater regard for their fellow countrymen and women

We are told endlessly (on and on the nagging goes) that the NHS is almost entirely staffed by immigrants.

We are also told that sections of the NHS (the junior doctors) are going on strike.

Is it possible that there is a connection between the immigrant composition of the NHS and the willingness of NHS employees to go on strike (with all that that implies for patients)?

If the NHS is made up of mercenaries, is it any wonder that they have no regard for their patients.

That their primary interest is money.

If we paid a bit more and had an NHS in England and Wales entirely staffed by English and Welsh people is it not more likely that they would have greater regard for their fellow countrymen and women?

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/24/mps-call-for-pilot-of-junior-doctors-contract-to-avoid-strike-action

The Home Secretary seemed more interested in semantics than in properly answering questions

Disappointing interview with Home Secretary Theresa May on the Andrew Marr Show this morning.

The Home Secretary seemed more interested in semantics than in properly answering questions.

She seemed to think that by deconstructing phrases and de-linking concepts she could prove that the problems around immigration that people complain of do not really exist.

And yet the problems are manifest for all to see.

For instance, one of the consequences of the massive influx of single young men has been the appearance of sleazy red light areas in almost every town and suburb where the immigrants congregate, indeed sometimes in villages.

I know of one sleepy rural market town where there is a narrow ally way from the market place down to a picturesque, recently renovated cobbled square.  The ally way is lined with antique shops, cafes, ladies hair salons.  A little way down the ally is a large Victorian pub, recently renovated.

The pub has applied for a "sexual entertainment" licence.

At the other end of the alley an informal house of ill repute, staffed by eastern European women, has opened (unofficially) above an estate agents.

It is inevitable that in the hours of darkness the alley will become an open-air brothel with prostitutes using the deep doorways to entertain their clients, throwing their filthy detritus on the pavement.  And it is also inevitable that there will be the associated criminal activity that always attends the emergence of red light areas (drugs, people trafficking, pimping etc).  Not to mention the public health implications with increased rates of venereal disease in the town that will have to be dealt with by the NHS.

But the Home Secretary does nothing except play words games with Andrew Marr.

One thinks that the Home Secretary has been too long in her post - that she has been subsumed by the culture of her department and become a civil servant writ large.

Theresa May, you have been a disappointment.

When "Dave" finally goes (roll on the day) I would like you to go too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0795gq8/the-andrew-marr-show-24042016

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/24/britain-has-control-of-borders-theresa-may-insists-despite-3m-mi/

The degradation Obama has imposed on the British people

Barack Obama has done a great deal of damage to long-term Anglo-American relations with his cack-handed interventions into the British EU referendum debate.

Perhaps he is not bothered by this?

Perhaps he hates his own country as much as he hates the United Kingdom?

Let us look at what he has done.

By so publicly humiliating the United Kingdom with his "back of the queue" comments (containing the subtext that the United Kingdom is of no real economic importance to the USA) he has made us a laughing stock in the capitals of the world.  From Berlin to Pyongyang foreign leaders will be guffawing with pleasure at the degradation Obama has imposed on the British people.  In the Kremlin Vladimir Putin will no doubt be delighted at the crack that has emerged in Anglo-American relations.

And let us take the implications of all this one logical step forward.

The facade of British world power status, already brittle and wafer thin, has with the Obama intervention been finally shattered.

What many people already knew has now been conveyed publicly to the world - the United Kingdom is a tiny island of no real importance to anyone.

Therefore why do we need the expensive trappings of world power status?

Certainly we do not need to spend billions and billions of pounds on the (American) Trident weapons system.  As a Conservative who is against Trident I have kept quiet because I thought possession of the system was required to maintain our "parade" in the world.  But if even our so-called ally is scornful of our efforts then what on earth is the point of giving the Americans all that money?

It would be interesting for the British media to report some of the coverage and cartoons about the Obama intervention that are appearing in the foreign media.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36120808

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3556162/Obama-warns-DECADE-trade-deal-Thatcher-s-economic-guru-claims-Brexit-leave-people-40-better-week.html

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/7101575/Farage-accuses-Obama-of-blasting-Brexit-to-line-his-own-pockets.html

A quick and dirty TTIP deal

In Left Foot Forward Labour MEP Jude Kirton-Darling suggests that "Obama’s visit is a charm offensive, intended to secure a quick and dirty TTIP deal in the sunset of the President’s administration":
http://leftfootforward.org/2016/04/obamas-ttip-charm-offensive-wont-quell-public-resistance/

Hypocrisy exhibited by Hillary Clinton intervening in the EU referendum

Stinking hypocrisy exhibited by Hillary Clinton intervening in the EU referendum:  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/23/hillary-clinton-britain-should-stay-in-eu

In 1992 the Clintons responded with fury when Conservative Central Office in London (presumably under the direction of John Major) helped George Bush senior's re-election campaign by researching the behaviour of Bill Clinton (draft-dodging, pot smoking etc) while a student at Oxford.

Why is British intervention in the USA political process bad, but American intervention in the British political process supposedly legitimate?

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/663867/Hillary-Clinton-EU-referendum-Brexit

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hillary-clinton-favours-remain-saying-she-values-a-strong-british-voice-in-the-eu-a6998086.html

Odd that none of these youth leaders wanted to ask him about his intervention in the EU referendum debate

Aisha Gani in the Guardian reports Obama's question and answer session with 500 "youth leaders" earlier today:  http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/23/barack-obama-london-visit-young-people-key-to-changing-the-world

Is it not odd that none of these youth leaders wanted to ask him about his intervention in the EU referendum debate?

How was the audience selected and what criteria did they use?

It is almost as if these 500 "youth leaders" were handpicked to conform with a particular ideological stance.

Being "leaders" their views on a whole range of issues will presumably be in the public domain and so it would be easy for an organiser of the meeting to check and select.

And it appears from Ms Gani's article that no-one of English ethnicity was present at the gathering - is this a true reflection of the event or evidence that Aisha Gani is unthinkingly racist?

So ignorant of current affairs that she thinks Canada is a republic

Did Nesrine Malik really claim, during today's Dateline London, that no-one can remember who the President of Canada is?

Is she really so ignorant of current affairs that she thinks Canada is a republic?

And no-one on the panel corrected her.

Which left me thinking:  these people are all self-important idiots.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m93g

Bigoted, in the most unpleasant way

It would be outrageous if it were not predictable that Dateline London should be so blatantly biased in favour of the Remain party.  And that it should also be bigoted, in the most unpleasant way, against the Leave party.  One rather loses all trust in the BBC when this sort of thing happens (and perhaps we should be noting this sort of thing for the BBC charter renewal process).

The Remain party's use of taxpayers' money to send a propaganda leaflet to every household in the United Kingdom supposedly representing the government's position (obviously a false claim since the government is split on the issue).  The behaviour of supposedly impartial institutions such as the BBC in supporting, in an undisguised way, the Remain party.  The connived intervention of foreign leaders to bully and cajole the British people into voting for the Remain party.

All these incidents will not do the Remain side any good.  If they manage (against the odds in my opinion) to win the referendum, immediately these incidents will be presented as evidence that the referendum result was "stolen".  And that will not bode well for politicians who have associated themselves with the Remain argument.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m93g

There is no special relationship between the United Kingdom and the USA

Diane Abbott was unconvincing when challenged on Channel 4 News to come up with reasons why the United Kingdom should stay in the EU.

Although she was quite right to say that there is no special relationship between the United Kingdom and the USA.

If the Obama visit has done nothing else, it has at least opened the eyes of many British people to that fact.

http://www.channel4.com/news/

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks

"The US president hit back at the suggestion that he was not an admirer of Britain's wartime leader, saying he had a bust of Churchill outside the Treaty Room - his private office on the second floor of his official residence.  'It's there voluntarily because I can do anything on the second floor. I love the guy,' he said." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36115138

Does Obama "love" Winston Churchill?

Can the Radio 4 PM show and Channel 4 News, both of which have fact-checking departments, check the veracity of that statement?

If Obama genuinely loves Winston Churchill we would expect to see references to Winston Churchill in his public statements over the last thirty years or so.

I don't just mean rebuttals to the criticism following the removal of the bust from the Oval Office.

I mean genuine admiration that reflects his claim "I love the guy".

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

And if nothing can be found Obama will be revealed as a liar.  Indeed a liar across two continents and a liar at the highest level of diplomatic intercourse.  And the journalist who proves this will have a story that will be remembered.

http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qskw

"What kind of people do they think we are"

Does Barack Obama think he can threaten the British people?

He would not be the first foreign leader who made that mistake.

As his "hero" (as he not very convincingly claimed today) Winston Churchill would say:  "What kind of people do they think we are".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/22/barack-obama-arrives-in-britain-to-tell-voters-to-remain-in-the/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36115138

Labour's policy is to remain in the EU but negotiate a better reform package

On BBC Question Time yesterday Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said that Labour's policy is to remain in the EU but negotiate a better reform package than David Cameron.

Admittedly the David Cameron package was a dud.

But the idea that the Labour party would get anything better is not credible.

In reality, Jeremy Corbyn is stuck with a parliamentary party that does not represent the membership and yet will not allow the leadership to campaign for LEAVE.

Therefore we have this wholly ignominious situation where Jeremy Corbyn pretends to be in favour of staying in, and his parliamentary party pretends to support him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b072fpn3

This leader in the Daily Telegraph is worth reading more than once:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/12183729/Our-pompous-bigoted-elite-have-not-even-bothered-to-consider-the-case-for-Brexit.html

David Cameron's Dodgy Dossier on relations with the EU

The publication of David Cameron's Dodgy Dossier on relations with the EU should the United Kingdom leave makes assumptions that are not credible:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-accused-of-releasing-dodgy-dossier-in-support-of-eu-membership-a6906816.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3473952/Fury-camp-s-latest-dodgy-dossier-Philip-Hammond-sparks-outrage-claiming-campaigners-secretly-content-sacrifice-British-jobs-regain-borders.html

The assumption made in the Dodgy Dossier is that there would be severe implications for British trade should the EU choose to get nasty.

In reality we have a very attractive trade relationship with the EU, our imports vastly greater than our exports.

If for some insane reason the EU decides it does not want to maintain that trading relationship with the United Kingdom all we have to do is say to the other trading blocs in the world "hey rest of the world, there are billions and billions of pounds worth of trade for you - all you have to do is match the current arrangements we have with the EU and the trade is yours - oh and the first bloc to get the trade arrangements in place gets the deal".

Don't you think the other blocs in the world will fall over themselves to take the EU's place?

Danny Finkelstein on the Daily Politics was indulging chav-hate

On Daily Politics this lunchtime non-Conservative Conservative peer Danny Finkelstein claimed that tolerance, cohesion and international peace depend on prosperity:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

The remarks went unchallenged.

And yet they are incredible.

Is he really saying that only comfortably-off middle class people are tolerant, cohesive and peaceful?

My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents (and so on back into the past at least as far as the mid-eighteenth century) lived in the East End in conditions that were poor and without significant economic assets.

And yet they were a respectable law-abiding family, among similar respectable law-abiding families, and they formed a cohesive society that was completely at ease with their patriotic self-identity.

Danny Finkelstein on the Daily Politics was indulging chav-hate in making a link between economic wealth and civilised behaviour.

How dare the French president threaten the British people with "consequences"

Why are we giving £17 million to sort out problems in France?

Is France some kind of shitty third world country that cannot manage its own affairs and needs financial handouts?

And how dare the French president threaten the British people with "consequences" if the EU referendum does not produce the result he wants.

And what sort of pathetic Chamberlain-like prime minister is Cameron that he just stands there while the United Kingdom is threatened.

The people in the "jungle" near Calais have nothing to do with the United Kingdom - they are entirely (ENTIRELY) a French problem.

Any attempt to "weaponise" these people and send them into our territory will be a hostile act by France against the United Kingdom and should be met with a proportionate reaction against France.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35712463

Did Hollande learn from Putin the idea of weaponising migrants?  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12180073/Nato-chief-Vladimir-Putin-weaponising-refugee-crisis-to-break-Europe.html  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4704478.ece

Agnes Poirier tells us it is "obvious" that the border with France is in Kent.

Actually Ms Poirier the border is half-way along the Channel Tunnel - you need to ponder the consequences for the tunnel if your country continues to weaponise the migrants in your territory.

And can you please explain Ms Poirier why the migrants in Calais do not want to remain in France?

Is it possible that your country poses as a tolerant and welcoming and humane country but in reality is just as nasty and zenophobic and cruel as it was under Marshal Pétain?

https://twitter.com/AgnesCPoirier 

If Philip Hammond does not apologise to Bill Cash I think his constituency should turn him out:  http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/warring-tories-trade-insults-over-7459682

Epping will not put up with this.

This article by Janice Turner in The Times is http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4700649.ece

Increasingly we will hear more and more voices from the left insist on being heard.

This conspiracy of silence about the EU referendum is about the Labour party's lust for power

Wednesday I attended a campaign briefing meeting. 

It was the first time I had been back at the Institute since my contract came to an end.  I was surprised how everything seemed changed and yet nothing seemed changed.  I was officially there as a "volunteer" but Alec Nussbaum assured me that I would have a senior role in his plans.

It was a typical Nussbaum event.  Seminar room in complete darkness except for the projector light.  Rows of seats gradually filling up with people one seldom saw, about fifty people in all.  Rock music bellowing out to supposedly get us "uplifted" - Starship's Nothing Gonna Stop Us Now which went on and on and then repeated so that I thought my eardrums might be perforated.

Alec Nussbaum talked for nearly two hours and such was the force of his enthusiasm that one hardly noticed the time.

He was particularly scathing about the Labour party (of course) and listed the ways in which their abdication from the EU debate would not only back fire on them but positively blow up in their face.

He described the Labour party as currently being in a "Dutch oven" - a phrase of such staggering vulgarity that I cannot write its meaning but if you go to this link there is a definition:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatulence_humor#Dutch_oven

Anyway, the analogy is that the Labour party is all in bed together but only Jeremy Corbyn and one or two others have their heads out.  The rest are under the covers and suffering the effects of the Dutch Oven.  Eventually they are going to burst out gasping for breath and insisting on having their say.

Effectively this conspiracy of silence about the EU referendum is about the Labour party's lust for power.  We saw this before with the unholy alliances that ushered in Blair.  And we know how bad that was for the Labour party.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wxyN3z9PL4 

David Cameron's joshing of Jeremy Corbyn

"Horrible, nasty, pathetic" is Owen Jones's verdict on David Cameron's joshing of Jeremy Corbyn's sartorial style:  https://twitter.com/OwenJones84

And yet on Dateline London this morning Polly Toynbee jeered at Donald Trump's messy hair: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0728j8j/dateline-london-27022016 (12.10 intothe programme where she is saying his policies were "as terrifying as his hair looks").

And has Owen Jones forgotten the 2008 Crewe & Nantwich by-election where official Labour individuals pranced around in top hats and tails to imply that dressing formally should be a bar to holding a parliamentary seat?

Horrible, nasty and pathetic indeed Owen Jones, but your side started it.