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Tuesday, 24 February, 2009 
It’s £1,300 billion, or £1,300 million million, or £1,300,000,000,000 It’s about the same amount of the UK’s GDP, the amount of goods and services we produce each year.
It’s also the total amount of debt that we taxpayers will be in after the Government puts through its ‘Asset Protection Plan’.
In other words we will, collectively, potentially, owe as much as we earn as a nation.
The ‘Asset Protection Plan’ will see up to £500 billion worth of debts in RBS and Lloyds insured by the taxpayer. RBS and Lloyds will pay a fee for this insurance probably in the form of further preference shares.
The idea is that the banks, having got their potential bad debts covered will be able to resume lending with a ‘clean slate’ safe in knowledge that if the debts go bad the taxpayer will cover them.
Of course not all debts will go bad, so the actual loss suffered by the taxpayer may not come to pass, but there is still a risk.
The other worry is that having had their bad debts covered, and the banking practices which helped lead to this mess effectively excused, what is to stop the banks repeating the same mistakes? Also what about banks that behaved responsibly and didn’t get overextended, will they be able to compete on an equal footing with RBS and Lloyds?
There is no point in bailing out the banks if the regulatory regime and banking practices do not change. This failure of Labour’s regulatory regime and the banks bad behaviour must not be swept under the carpet. They must be held to account by shareholders, taxpayers and voters.
But my biggest worry is that once again the Government will not face up to the facts. This recession is about debt, and until the debt is written off or paid back, so that debt levels fall overall there will be no long-term recovery. The simple fact is that we have spent and borrowed too much and we must, as a nation, live within our means. No amount of moving the debt around from the private sector to the public (taxpayers) sector will hide this fact.
The irony is that this news comes after the day that Gordon Brown said 100% mortgages should end, yet with he is putting a 100% debt mortgage on everyone.
Ken Livingstone, predictably, blames the bankers wholly for the recession. He seems to forget that Government and individuals all played a part to create the borrowing binge. He had this to say in an interview in the Evening Standard on 24th February:
“But the real idiot is Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England. It was his job to be on top of the economy but he was catastrophically slow to act. I blame him and those bankers getting their bonuses. Honestly, we should shoot one banker a week until the others improve”
I believe shooting people who you felt had not performed up to standard was a favourite technique used by Stalin.
Why is it that the left wing can get away with making such blatant, bigoted, stupid and nasty statements?
Sunday, 15 February, 2009
Tuesday, 10 February, 2009
There have been a number of stories in the press over the last few weeks that have prompted me to write this blog entry. Yesterday, a story broke that at Senior Foreign Office Official had been arrested after an anti-Jewish rant in his local gym, but he hadn’t been suspended by the Foreign Office. Last week, there were the separate cases of a nurse who has been sacked for offering to pray for an elderly patient, because she didn’t show enough appreciation of the ‘diversity’ agenda, and also, the case of an experienced foster carer who was struck off because a Muslim girl converted to Christianity whilst in her care. Stories like these often provoke bewilderment and outrage and certainly the last two cases seem to show a bias towards Christianity, still the majority religion in the UK. Added to the regular stories at Christmas time of overly PC councils banning the mention of Christmas lest it causes offence, or Councils banning the use of the word ‘blackboard’ and many people wonder just what is going on?
I recall a time when, whilst at University, I was told by a member of one of the many socialist student societies, that because I was a white, Anglo Saxon male, I was intrinsically racist, sexist and homophobic, and because I was a North East Tory, a traitor to my class (the working class) to boot!. I could have been clever, and pointed out that by labelling me in such a way, it was them who was bigoted, or that I didn’t need lectures from a nice middle class person from the South East (which they were), instead, if I recall correctly I told them to ‘get stuffed’, or words to that effect.
But why is it that some forms of prejudice, for example, against Jews, Christians or the ‘middle classes’ seem to be allowed by our self appointed ‘diversity monitors’, why is it some people can get away with such bigoted veiws as a calling for the ‘beheading of infidels’ when they deem offence against Islam.
I believe that the heart of this problem lies in the failed idea of Multiculturalism. There is a difference between multi cultural, which is statement of fact in modern Britain, and in the doctrine of multiculturalism.
For me a multi cultural society is one in which there are many different cultures, all free to practice their beliefs, and all tolerant of each other. A multi cultural society can still have common values: such as, supporting the family, respecting and tolerating differences, believing in the rule of law and democracy, a sense of fair play and shared sense of humour, a shared history, sometimes with painful aspects but shared never the less, and a belief in free speech. These are common values that could mesh together the wonderful kaleidoscope of modern Britain, so we all have a sense of what it means to be British.
Multiculturalism however has become a doctrine, nominally committed to diversity and the above, but actually in practice it is a policy of promoting difference at the expense of shared values. Of tolerating views from one side which should be seen for the bigoted prejudice for which they are, and, used as a way to batter down any criticism with the call of ‘racism’.
The effects of this are felt in three ways:
Under the cloak, tolerance, and protection of multiculturalism, extremists have flourished and spread their ideas. The majority, fearful of being seen to be racist, have not intervened to stop this. That is why young British kids blew themselves up on the tube in July 2007 and why Clerics who preach hatred are still allowed.
The second effect is to polarise opinion and drive some into the hands of rival extremists. By overlooking the extremist rants of one section of society, and at the same time by constantly labelling concerns (whether real or just perceived) by honest people, racist, sexist of homophobic, some people believe their concerns are not being listened too, and this is fertile breeding ground for rival extremist parties to gather votes and support.
But the third impact is perhaps the most serious. I firmly believe that the vast majority of all faiths and ethnic groups in this country just want to be left alone to get on with their lives. They want to enjoy each other’s festivals from Christmas to Diwali, from Christian, Sikh and Muslim weddings to same sex partnerships. A common bond of humanity, and being British links us all, which allows us to enjoy each other’s company without feeling, threatened of victimised.
But for some, our self appointed Multicultural guardians, such a happy society is not allowed. Constantly the majority are told that this or that may cause offence, or that this or that has to change. The bias of these people is felt everywhere in the media, constantly belittling the majority and emphasising difference. It is this surrender of fairness, to difference rather than common values, this middle class angst that in order to prove they are not racist, sexist or homophobic against the minority, you have to act in precisely this way against the majority.
How do you solve this, how do you build a genuinely free society, that is just and tolerant, different yet common?
Well we could start by actually recognising the difference between multi cultural and multiculturalism. By punishing those guilty of hatred equally, by not letting one side have the excuse of victim hood or past wrongs against their ethnic group as a reason for their prejudice and intolerance.
We could also be being honest about the real threats we face, and which groups they are coming from and stop trying to excuse it by saying, well, one side is just as bad as the other. To my knowledge it is only one group of extremists who have, in recent history, murdered their fellow citizens by blowing themselves up. Lets concentrate on that problem and not worry about phantom threats from shadowy right wing plots.
As for the self appointed multicultural guardians, perhaps its time to look at the funding which comes from the taxpayer, and say, look if you want taxpayer funding then you cannot operate in such a biased way.
But the most important thing we can do is to win the battle of ideas. To argue patiently and clearly that this approach has failed, it has broken our common cultural heritage and it needs changing. To recognise that building a strong society does not come from Government, it comes from people and families, through communities and nation, and it grows from these values. That is a challenge worthy of a real multi cultural society.
Thursday, 05 February, 2009
Today I visited Bolton Manor Farm with James Paice, the Shadow Agriculture Minister. I found the visit very useful, because like most people from a town, I don’t normally think about where our food comes from, and just assume that farms will always be there to provide it. Speaking to the owner of the farm and to other farmers afterwards, makes you realise how hard farming really is. One of the big problems they face is a lack of people willing to put up with the hours that farming entails and this means that they can only plan year to year. We were also shown the ‘hi-tech’ milking machines which I was very impressed with. What is also apparent is that this Labour Government just doesn’t get the countryside, and they just don’t understand the challenges farmers face. I will certainly think more about my food shopping because we do need to do this if UK farmers are to have a long and sustainable future.
Sunday, 01 February, 2009
Readers of this website will know that I have been sceptical that the Carrier work would ever come to Barrow. Well now Murray Easton, MD of BAe Systems has confirmed this. I am under no doubt that he is only doing what he is told by the MOD, and this decision rests with the Government not BAe. The reason given is that transport difficulties between Barrow, the North East and Rosyth, mean that it is better for this work to be carried out in the North East. Yet the transport difficulties have always been understood, so why has it taken so long for this fact to be admitted, and why did the people of Barrow have to hear this from Murray Easton rather than John Hutton?
This should not have happened; businesses and people in Barrow should not have had the prospect of this work held out, only for it to be snatched away.
Can there be any faith in the promise of additional submarine orders, given this Government’s track record on ship orders. For example the planned class of 12 Type 45 Destroyers has been cut to 6 and the Tanker replacement programme delayed.
I will blog at a later date on the state of the Royal Navy and the history of orders to the shipyard in Barrow.
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