Everything you ever wanted to know about British politics but were afraid to ask...

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Do people in Britain long for Winston Churchill to be reincarnated in the same way that people in the US long for Harry Truman to make a return appearance?

Probably like you in US we just want someone who at least attempts to tell the truth and delivers results - instead of leaders and MPs who fabricate answers to satisfy their electorate without trhere being any substance to back up their rhetoric.

Also, much too much these days, our MPs are looking more and more after themselves at the expense of the public taxpayers - perks, pensions, expenses - you name it they exploit it!

And they wonder why the numbers who actually use their vote continues to drop...

[Cyclefrance]

There seems to be more going on behind the scenes than in front of the audience, but perhaps that should be no surprise.

While Tony played down the idea that he would set a timetable for standing donw per se, insisting that he would of course give his successor enough time to settle in, various meetings planned at senior level suggest that an agenda for his departure may become a reality - albeit that the details will be only for the ears and eyes of a select few.

This seems a disctinct possibility, as it is otherwise hard to see how he will silence the voices of those who want him out without something more than a vague proposal. Nevertheless, our Tone is a slippery character who has shown his supreme ability to wriggle his way out of many a tight squeeze in the past - so why should this be any different...?

[Cyclefrance]

Yes, Tony and Gordon are talking privately. This time around Gordon isn't so keen to take Tony at his word (seeing how often he has broken it in the past) and is demanding to have firm handover dates and a timetable in return for backing Tone's reform programme in the interim - or so informed sources say....

[Cyclefrance]

I moaned a few entries ago about the way our MPs line their own pockets, citing pensions as an example.

Interesting to see that Gordon Brown is reported overnight as having scored over Tony Blair about returning to earning's-related pensions increases for state pensions (withdrawn a good few years back).

Blair wanted this re-introduced by latest 2010 (yes, that long off), while Brown argued for a 2012 introduction based on cost and has won his way. Interestingly, this will be followed by an increase in the state retirement age for males from current age 65 to age 68 before 2050.

It's all taken years to agree on and I guess it all sounds a bit yawn-making in a way, being so far off before it is implemented, but you have to look at this situation alongside the way MPs dealt much quickly with their own pension problems.

Three years back they voted fairly easily and without much of a conscience to increase their final salary pensions so that they only had to work 10 years to get a pension equivalent to 25% of their final salary. Compare that to a member of the public working 40 years for 30% pension, and that these schemes, known as final salary schemes, have virtually all been abandoned by companies in favour of money-purchase schemes (which rely on stock market performance to define their value) anyway because of the overhead the final salary schemes impose.

Worse still, when the stock market crash two year's back hit the money-purchase schemes values the general public had to accept the decrease in the value of their retirement nest-eggs). Not so the MPs, who took a further £25 million from taxpayers to make up the shortfall this would have caused to their final salary schemes.

All fair there then!

PS - I forgot to mention the $5 billion per year raid Brown made on pension fund values in the private sector when he abolished tax relief on investment dividends...

I wanna' know where I can get me one-a' them wigs!

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

I wanna' know where I can get me one-a' them wigs!

You still have time

Originally Posted by Cyclefrance

You still have time

Now, you know that is not what I meant.

[Cyclefrance]

That would be telling

[Cyclefrance]

Another great day for British politics - publication of the latest dossier on the 7/7 London bombings, and another list of failures and missed opportunities.

The plotters were under surveillance, but there was no cohesion by the MI5 of all the evidence they had on reconnaissance trips, phone numbers and activities of the four plotters that were deemed individually to have been only of minor importance and were never pieced together - if they had been the report concludes that the result would have been compelling.

And most noticeable by its absence is any attempt to show any hint of a relationship between the Iraq invasion and the 7/7 attacks.

Conclusion: no fault of the intelligence services for the outcome, but they must do better to prevent any repeat of mistakes made in respect of 7/7.

Hard to swallow when the IS have not been able even now to identify any of the masterminds behind the attack, and admit that the number of potential terror suspects has climbed from 250 2 years ago to 800 now - a number they are finding it hard to keep tabs on.

[jaguar]

I have to admit I don't blame MI5 for 7/7, keeping track of that many people, working out which ones are bluffing and which ones have the balls & having the operational capability & manpower to stop things is not easy and god knows how many they've stopped but I'm guessing it's a few. it's quite likely there was no external 'mastermind' behind the attack or if there was, he's in the mountains of Pakistan, not bradford or finsbury.

Since this is all about british politics. Fuck David Cameron with a car exhaust, he's a pathetic green-washing piece of shit blue-blood tory with more spin and less substance than Tony Blair, no real policies & no political balls.

[Cyclefrance]

Well, I'm still undecided on how Cameron will actually pan out, but have to agree that he is somewhat Blair-like in his approach. But the fact that he has been the one to re-establish the Tories as a viable opposition must count for soemthing, and probably goes to prove the old addage that you need to fight fire with fire.

Editting to add: IMO there's more to the failure of preventing 7/7 than meets the eye. I would have expected MI5, by the very virtue of its name, to attack any directive with the military precision that the British forces have demonstrated in their operations in the past. The fact that they haven't suggests that they are under-resourced - both in numbers and with personnel in the right places with the appropriate skills. However, this is symptomatic of a government (and probably preceding governments as well) who are happy to make sweeping statements about the programmes they will initiate to appease their electorate, but who have no idea of the implications of same in terms of manpower and procedures and therefore fail to make the necessary resources (essentially funding) available to permit their plans to have even half a chance of success. Either that, or they have a hidden agenda - something I would not discount given the evidence of past shenanigans. Sadly, with this government, we have seen this approach repeated across one government department to another.

[Cyclefrance]

Blair is struggling to take the spotlight off the disasters of the last two weeks (ministerial problems followed by negative local election results), but has chosen an odd vehicle, namely the Human Rights legislation.

For 9 years the legislation has given criminals as much (some say more) consideration as their victims, to the extent that it has even been impossible to deport known terrorists. Now Tony wants to tighten the law to plug this gaping hole - given his lack of success in other areas where he has meddled, ther isn't much confidence in his ability to achieve this, and the cynics amngst us say that's fine now that his wife who runs a law practice that specialises in Human Rights has made her millions, and especially as Tony will be moving out of his job before too long. All too convenient.

Meanwhile the police are stepping up their investigations into the 'pay for peerages' debacle, as the circle of events draws ever tighter and closer to the Prime Minister's office....

Prescott, now with hardly any parliamentary responsibilities, still enjoys his salary and perks, despite public outcry, which isn't helping at all.

On a positive not (well, for Tony, anyway), the PM has presented Gordon Brown with the job of sorting out the Home Office - a nice poisoned chalice if ever there was one - if he fails or doesn't make satisfactory progress it will certainly damage his prospects of succeeding Tony, without a doubt...

[Cyclefrance]

Here we go again - unmitigated spin and fabrication. What is it this time? Why, immigration, for a change (not really...).

Now John Reid, he of the short stay fraternity, is in control of the Home Office, we are being subjected to his rhetoric. Well, after the farce yesterday of the Immigration rep being unable to answer any of the questions about numbers of illegal immigrants and progress in tracking them down, JR (how appropriate those initials seem) was bound to step into the breach.

So there are maybe/possible/perhaps (according to the think of a number, double it and take away the number you first thought of methodology of statistics gathering) around 400,000 illegal immigrants, but, of cousre, most of these were inherited by the current government as they are undoubtedly the offspring of the original illegal immugarnts that the last legislation failed to stop entering....

So you can see where we are leading. Asked how many illegal immigrants were now being caught, JR's answer was that it was now more than the number making false applications (one has to assume that this means the number of false applications we know about, which could be, what, 10?), to which he added we are identifying around 1,000 illegals a month now - that being based on there being 2,500 in the last 3 months (minds you maths never was his strong point - I think it was Mr Reid who declared that there were only a handful of Polish plumbers in the UK - that's in spite of their having been an influx of 350,000 poles seeking work in the UK since Poland gained EU admission last year).

Believe me, it will get worse - and by that I means in terms of numbers and the accompanying rhetoric!

Time to man the lifeboats, methinks....

[Cyclefrance]

Tony just can't wait! No, it's not about his quitting as PM - that can ALWAYS wait. It's about the re-emergence of nuclear energy as a prime source of electricity generation for the UK.

There's an official study due to be completed and published in July this year, but somoone's told Tony that 50% of people interviewed in a recent survey now think Nuclear Energy would be acceptable. So why waste time waiting for the official answer. Tone's shown his hand already. No need to cosnider other options such as alterantive sources and improving efficiency in the way energy is consumed. No, Tony's convinced that NE is the way to go if emissions are to be cut by anywhere near the amount demanded.

Let's hope we've learned the mistakes of Iraq - the last time Tony forced his way over everyone else - and that we won't let him run roughshod over the many concerns that people have regarding the long-term issues of NE, and not least the negative legacy of spent nuclear fuel disposal.

Some believe he is just trying to wrong foot the opposition parties, to show a positive lead on the matter. There is of course the little issue of one Alan Donnelly to consider, he being a lobbyist for the Nuclear sector and representative of major US company Fluor who are suppliers in this market, and someone who has given financial help to David Miliband, the Labour minister tasked by Tony to investigate the NE option (plus Tony himself has enjoyed the hospitality of Mr Donnelly as well).

Grey and muddied waters yet again....

[Cyclefrance]

Well, I tried to put it off as long as I could, but sooner or later the matter of John Prescott has to be covered.

There's been a lot of griping from oppositioin parties about Prescott's loss of department, but retention of salary and perks as a result of the Cabinet reshuffle.

The man with the money but no job is how it seems, and, given the exposure of his 'intimate office work' he's not exactly in anyone's good books.

But Tony is trying to beef up appearances. Prescott has value for him as a broker between the PM and Gordon Brown in respect off the eventual handover (if GB actually ends up getting the job, that is!), so Tony wants to keep on the right side of the man (why expose yourself personally to any backfire when you can set up a formidable firewall!).

Trouble is, nobody believes that all the other tasks that Tony has now said will be Prescott's responsibilities have any credibilty, and Prescott had a rough ride through his speech yesterday in parliament from all sides.

It remains to be seen if this one will continue to aggravate or that the old addage that a week in politics is a long time will hold true and the Prescott debacle will slip quietly below the horizon...