No Nonsense

Deliverance Day minus 7. Last Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Inter Milan was extremely frustrating. Inter Milan resorted to boring defensive tactics that harked back to an Italian football style that had been consigned to the history book. Barcelona was compelled to attack and produced their hallmark one-touch and first-pass style that requires patience. There was too much patience as they kept possession of the ball but made little impact. As the minutes ticked on and the goals proved elusive it became clear that they needed a Peter Kay on the subs bench. In the John Smiths beer commercial, while the other players are playing keepie-uppie, when the ball comes to Kay he wallops it out off the ground with a grunt of satisfaction and the message – no nonsense.

Fire up the Quattro

Deliverance Day minus 8. History has a habit of repeating itself, but with a new twist. Jimmy Carter was a one term President of the USA from 1977 to 1981. Within the Democratic Party there was some dissatisfaction and in 1980 he was strongly challenged for the nomination by Edward Kennedy. Carter beat Kennedy but then went on to lose the presidential election to Republican Ronald Reagan. Democrat Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and inaugurated as President in 2009 for a term expiring in 2013. There will be a US presidential election in 2012 and it is beginning to look as though there will be a repeat with a one term Democrat President. The questions about Obama’s birth and eligibility have not subsided, and Obama and the Democratic Party are not coming up with any satisfactory answers. A number of States have brought in legislation that will ensue that these questions will have to be answered before Obama’s re-nomination can be endorsed. Those on the inside of the Democrats organisation are worried that if it is found that he was not eligible it will bring in to question his actions as President over the whole of his term and could create a constitutional crisis. To avoid this Hillary Clinton is being encouraged to make a strong challenge for the Democrat nomination just as Edward Kennedy did. The twist will be that where Kennedy failed, Clinton will win. But will she go on to win the presidential election? It all depends on who the Republicans nominate. Nobody thought that Reagan, a Hollywood actor, could beat Carter but he did because he had a popular grass-roots appeal. Sarah Palin has that same appeal and this is being cultivated. Liberals in the UK cannot comprehend this and the Secular Coalition for America has launched an all out attack on her. Clinton is not only disliked, she is detested and to such an extent that many people and groups would coalesce around Palin to keep Clinton out of the Whitehouse. If Palin wins, major constitutional changes will follow with Tenth Amendment transfer of powers back to the States from the Fed.

Protecting the most vulnerable

Deliverance Day minus 9. The Institute of Fiscal Studies has introduced an element of reality in to the Election campaign after scrutinizing the parties’ plans for dealing with the mounting public debt. They have concluded that none of the parties’ figures stack up and whoever is in government will have to make bigger public spending cuts and increase taxation more than they are telling the voters. The Institute has demanded that the parties should be honest about how they are going to proceed. It is timely because in a poll last month 50% thought that the deficit could be dealt with by public spending cuts. More, 75% thought that dealing with inefficiency would do the trick. It seems that the politicians are scared of the public who appear to be scared of reality.

What Education

Deliverance Day minus 10. Children have the right to be educated by his/her parents, who have a prior and fundamental right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. This is enshrined in international law and States have a duty to provide education for children up to the age of fourteen. After that age there is discretion. Implicit in this right of parents to choose is a responsibility on the government to facilitate that choice.  While all the main parties claim to uphold this parental right there has been a trend by both Conservative and Labour governments to impose a more uniform and rigid regime on all schools under their control. The national curriculum has forced schools to conform to structured teaching that leaves little room or time for individuality. Home schooling is frowned on and to be discouraged.

A Clash of Cultures

Monday 26th April 2010 [D -11] Reposted due to malfunction.

Deliverance Day minus 11. Preoccupied as we are with the UK General Election we should not lose sight of what is happening in the British Overseas Territories because it tells us about how it used to be in this Country and about what we have lost. It also demonstrates how the European Convention of Human Rights is being used to distort natural rights and destroy our culture and conviviality. Diversity overrides cohesion. British Overseas Territories are small groups of people living in far off lands – mainly islands – who do not want to be decolonised as independent states or subsumed by a larger neighbouring state that might have old claims on them. They want to remain British but with a degree of independence where they are responsible for their domestic affairs and the UK is able to look after their defence and foreign relations. The Foreign Office has been working to modernise their Constitutions and supports the principle of self-determination. Except that the liberal tendency within the UK government want to impose their version of what has been imposed on us. So territories that have a predominantly conservative population that still adheres to that old-time religion, Christianity, have discovered that their right to determine their own future is being restricted. When negotiating their modern Constitutions they are not being allowed to include a religious reference to Christianity. The Foreign Office is the ‘guardian’ of human rights in these cases, but they are the distorted rights that we have become familiar with.

We are concentrating on Gibraltar because they are in Europe and they are predominantly Catholic. They have also fought a long battle with the Foreign Office who have long sought to give the isthmus back to Spain. After WW1 they tried to arrange a swap whereby Gib’ would be exchanged for Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in Morocco. The latest attempt by Jack Straw and Peter Hain to stitch up a joint sovereignty deal with Spain behind the backs of Gibraltarians was defeated. The Government of Gibraltar held their own independent referendum, when 20,000 Gibraltarians unanimously rejected the proposals. The Government of Gibraltar then negotiated a new constitution that was to their liking and retained a guarantee that the UK would never override the wishes of the Gibraltarians. Jack Straw and Peter Hain are not welcome in Gibraltar and there is no love lost between the Chief Ministers Office [at Convent Place

A Clash of Cultures

Deliverance Day minus 11. Preoccupied as we are with the UK General Election we should not lose sight of what is happening in the British Overseas Territories because it tells us about how it used to be in this Country and about what we have lost. It also demonstrates how the European Convention of Human Rights is being used to distort natural rights and destroy our culture and conviviality. Diversity overrides cohesion. British Overseas Territories are small groups of people living in far off lands – mainly islands – who do not want to be decolonised as independent states or subsumed by a larger neighbouring state that might have old claims on them. They want to remain British but with a degree of independence where they are responsible for their domestic affairs and the UK is able to look after their defence and foreign relations. The Foreign Office has been working to modernise their Constitutions and supports the principle of self-determination. Except that the liberal tendency within the UK government want to impose their version of what has been imposed on us. So territories that have a predominantly conservative population that still adheres to that old-time religion, Christianity, have discovered that their right to determine their own future is being restricted. When negotiating their modern Constitutions they are not being allowed to include a religious reference to Christianity. The Foreign Office is the ‘guardian’ of human rights in these cases, but they are the distorted rights that we have become familiar with.

Barking MAD and SAD

Deliverance Day minus 12.  Never mind that we have to endure a liberal democracy that has trashed our historical values, things can only get worse. Right has become wrong and good is now bad. The world’s turned upside down. It is not just this country, it is the whole western culture that has been degraded. We are really living in a decadent democracy. It is particularly difficult for Catholics as we are a prime target being part of the universal bastion and bulwark against evil. The Catholic Church is the projection in the forefront taking the full blast of the onslaught. Catholics need to wake up and smell the coffee, because it whiffs.

Slaughter of the Unborn

Deliverance Day minus 13. Today members and supporters of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children held silent pro-life chains across the UK. Over seven million children have been killed since the Abortion Act was passed in 1967. Over 200,000 last year. The annual witness draws the public’s attention to this tragedy and reminds them that abortion not only kills children, but also hurts women who deserve much better. The chains of pro-lifers are also a reminder that there are people who care and are not going to go away. While ever they take to the streets abortion will not become acceptable and the default setting of a liberal democracy.

Saint George’s Day

Deliverance Day minus 14. Happy Saint George’s Day. Today we celebrate the feast day of Saint George the martyr knight and patron saint of England. He reputedly refused to deny his belief in Jesus Christ before the Emperor Diocletian who is represented by the dragon in depictions. He was executed for standing by his belief and one of the earliest depictions of this legend is on a Roman tombstone at Conisborough near Doncaster in South Yorkshire. The earliest know writings about the Saint are in eighth century Anglo-Saxon and churches were dedicated to him before the Norman Conquest, one in Doncaster 1061. But it was the crusades that popularised him in this Country. He was seen together with Saint Demetrius to be assisting the Franks at the Battle of Antioch in 1098. The red cross on a white background was introduced at the time of Richard the Lionheart and became the uniform of English soldiers and sailors, and remains as the white ensign of the Royal Navy.

Sorting the National Health Service

Deliverance Day minus 15. Resurgence has a big idea for the National Health Service – democratise it. In addition to the need to democratise the NHS there is also a need to adopt the principle of subsidiarity. It has been pointed out that since New Labour abandoned Clause four of its constitution there has been a political consensus which has precluded the consideration, never mind adoption, of alternative models for running the NHS. A false impression of independence has been created with the conversion of hospitals and Heath Authorities to Trusts and Foundations. If these had a Founding Body with an ethos and aims and values there might be some individualism. Their other failing is that they do not have real financial control but exist on the handout received from central government. They are not accountable to the people they serve.