Without co-operation none of the minor parties can ever make a significant breakthrough in National Politics. They need to merge and grow and become a party for the electorate to believe in.
So Labour brand all who raise the subject of mass immigration as racists.
The quote “the lady doth protest too much, me thinks” springs to mind here.
Having spent a decade relaxing controls that has allowed more people into the country in the misguided belief that they are natural labour supporters, the last thing they want now, is to have this cosy pattern disturbed.
When will these misguided, “head in the clouds”, socially irresponsible politicians, understand that the immigration debate is not about the colour of the skin or the belief system of those seeking to come to this country, it is about pure number and the socio economic infrastructure to cope.
Uncontrolled immigration hurts immigrants, residents and nationals alike.
A more worrying issue is the substitution effect where skilled human resources are leaving the country, to be replaced by, largely, less skilled people; this is leading to a general lowering of the overall skills and experienced labour, available to satisfy national needs.
I would have thought that a rational, dispassionate, review of numbers and the effect that all immigration has on our society would be a welcome debate at this time for the benefit of all, then again I am not a government politician and live in the real world so what do I know.
Eurozone Crisis
Traders and hedge funds are making record bets against the euro, underlining the mounting alarm over the region’s debt crisis.
Market players have bet almost £5billion that the value of the currency will fall against the U.S. dollar, the largest ‘short position’ since it was launched.
European governments have been drawing up plans for a possible bail-out of Greece, amid fears it could be spiralling towards debt default.
Worries about the health of public finances are also spreading to other countries.
Speculators believe these states will be unable to meet their obligations to lenders and have taken up a short position on the currency.
More than 40,000 deals have been made betting against the single currency, according to analysis of figures from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Some analysts claim the crisis is so deep the future of the euro could be put in peril, driving the value of the single currency lower.
The numbers underline the growing sense of panic about the euro zone’s ability to cope with the government debt turmoil.
Politicians are desperately trying to convince market players that they are serious about taking the debt-cutting measures needed to shore up their national finances.
Traders have taken out record-breaking short positions on the euro, betting that the Greek debt crisis drives the value of the currency lower.
But in Greece, the eye of the current storm, opposition to public spending cuts is growing.
Some 600,000 state workers, from teachers to tax collectors, are planning to strike for 24 hours later this week as they protest the austerity measures planned by Prime Minister George Papandreou.
Fiscal woes are hardly confined to the euro zone, however. British government bonds took a fresh hit amid claims the UK bears alarming similarities to those of Greece, Portugal and Spain.
Popular Alliance Comment:
This saga teaches us two lessons, one that the euro is inflexible and cannot allow individual states room to manoeuvre their way out of financial crisis and secondly that the UK is alarmingly similar to Greece and will need some serious action to prevent total financial collapse and massive devaluation of the pound.
Unfortunately our government is run for votes and power and not for the good of the country.
Immigration Cap Required
A cross-party group of MPs and peers have called on the main parties to make a manifesto pledge not to allow the UK's population to exceed 70 million.
Former minister Frank Field is among those arguing current immigration rates, unless restricted, will impact on public services and quality of life.
All the main parties are sceptical about setting population targets which they believe is unrealistic and counter-productive.
Last year the Office for National Statistics said if current trends continued, the UK population would rise by 10 million to more than 71.6 million by 2033 - the fastest rise in a century.
Two-thirds of that increase would be caused, directly or indirectly, by migration to the UK, it suggested.
'Social harmony'
Nearly 20 parliamentarians, including five Labour MPs and 10 Conservative MPs, are backing a campaign calling for curbs on immigration entitled "70 million is too many".
Current levels of immigration into the UK were "unprecedented", it said, and threatened the "future harmony of our society".
"Poll after poll shows the public to be deeply concerned about immigration and its impact on our population," Mr Field and Tory MP Nicholas Soames, the group's co-chairmen, said.
"It is time parties turned their rhetoric into reality by making manifesto commitments to prevent our population reaching 70 million by 2029."
For a start, they argue, the government must "restore control" over the UK's borders and "break the present almost automatic link between coming to Britain and later gaining citizenship".
Net migration - the number of people who come to live in Britain minus those who leave - fell by more than a third in 2008 but critics say this was driven by eastern Europeans returning home and immigration levels must fall to levels of the early 1990s.
Official estimates that the UK population will pass 70 million by 2025 were based on a forward projection of the 2007 net migration figure and this is likely to be revised downwards in light of the 2008 figures.
Popular Alliance Comment:
Britain is full and has been for ages. We cannot allow our services and taxes to be used up on uncontrolled immigration whilst we allow millions of home born Britains to be out of work whether that be through choice or not. A strict cap is needed on both EU and Non- EU immigrants. We should re-negotiate that part of EU policy as soon as possible.
Expenses Sham Continues
Receipts reveal how politicians went on a multi-million pound 'last hurrah' before a clampdown on the second homes fiddle known as 'flipping'. a way of exploiting the system to net personal wealth for some MPs.
But despite more stringent regulations, 53 politicians flipped their second homes allowance last year, a practice which has provoked widespread condemnation.
Documents released today reveal how:
GORDON BROWN claimed £7245.22 in additional allowances, including £2,713 for decoration, tiling and wiring in a downstairs toilet, £185 for gardening expenses and £98.20 for dry-cleaning and laundry. He also repaid £500 he had claimed to have a summer house repainted. Details of his phone bills included three long phone calls from his constituency home to an address in Canterbury, one lasting 1hr and 44minutes.
DAVID CAMERON claimed £20,240.15 in Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) including £1198.57 for oil for a stove at his home in Witney, Oxfordshire.
GEORGE OSBORNE got his mortgage claim wrong and had his Aga cleaned at the taxpayers' expense.
NICK CLEGG claimed £160 a month for 'garden maintenance' including weeding, strimming and pruning his apple tree. He put in a claim for £1,600 which was later slashed to £1,000.
JOHN BERCOW claimed £22,465.49 in ACA - and also flipped his home for a third time before becoming Commons Speaker.
DAVID MILIBAND, the foreign secretary, was threatened with legal action for failing to keep up with council tax payments.
International development secretary DOUGLAS ALEXANDER claimed £105 for a chimney sweep.
SHAUN WOODWARD claimed for an accountant who was a specialist in 'amassing wealth'.
ALAN and ANN KEEN - dubbed Mr and Mrs Expenses - were asked to repay £353.41 after overclaiming for service charges on their London flat.
Moat-clearing MP DOUGLAS HOGG claimed £20 for a toaster, £19 for low-energy lightbulbs, £4.99 for weedkiller, and £2.99 for refuse bags...
... while duck house MP SIR PETER VIGGERS claimed £8,000 for lawn feed and other gardening, as well as £669 for shutters for his country home.
JAMES ARBUTHNOT, Tory chair of the defence committee, put in a £43.56 receipt for a four-piece garlic peeling and cutting set.
PHIL HOPE wanted the money for a £2 hamburger maker.
ALAN MEALE claimed £1,000 for a shed with a veranda.
The latest round of expense claims, covering 2008-09 and the first quarter of 2009-10, were released by House of Commons authorities this morning. MPs' combined claims came to £10,706,562.46
Popular Alliance Comment:
We are glad MP’s are being named and shamed, because they are all being exposed for what they are: greedy, power obsessed, arrogant and with no regard for the British Public or the British Taxpayer.
£2 trillion pensions liability
Taxpayers are facing a £2 trillion unfunded pensions liability, equivalent to more than £80,000 for every household in Britain, according to figures quietly released by the Government yesterday.
In a document released on its website only a few hours before the Chancellors pre-budget statement, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) laid out the definitive cost taxpayers will have to bear for both the state old age pension and public sector pensions.
The document reveals:
The total public sector pensions bill is now £810bn, a figure confirmed later in the day in the pre-Budget report. The majority of the state employees are on generous final salary schemes unattainable elsewhere in the UK
This bill for key public sector workers' pensions has rocketed by 20pc between 2006 and 2008.
The Government Actuary's Department's estimate of the cost of the state pension due to all workers is £1,350bn as of 2005 – equivalent to almost 100pc of Britain's annual economic output.
The entire bill of around £2.2 trillion would more than triple the size of the national debt overnight. It is entirely unfunded, so will have to be paid directly by future generations of taxpayers, rather than out of a pot contributed to by the pensioners themselves.
The revelations, contained in the ONS's Pensions Trends document, underline the scale of the long-term fiscal crisis facing this and future governments – even before the added costs of the economic and financial crisis are taken into account.
The Treasury itself has never published its own comprehensive calculation of the size of Britain's unfunded pensions liabilities.
A range of institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and ratings agencies such as Standard and Poor's, have warned Britain that unless it takes drastic action over a long period of time, these pensions costs could trigger fiscal crises in the future.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has said that in order to fight the rising deficit and combat the added costs of the financial crisis, the Government ought to raise the retirement age for both men and women to 70, or increase the basic rate of income tax by as much as 15p.
The Treasury has always been reluctant to release details of the size of the public sector pensions liability, but in a supplementary document produced alongside the PBR on long-term fiscal projections it said that the bill for public sector pensions had crept up to £810bn.
A recent study from the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that the final salary schemes offered to public sector employees are even more generous than those given to private sector workers with equivalent pension schemes.
The entire bill of around £2.2 trillion would more than triple the size of the national debt overnight. It is entirely unfunded, so will have to be paid directly by future generations of taxpayers, rather than out of a pot contributed to by the pensioners themselves.
Popular Alliance Comment:
We thought that the banks were encouraged to save for tomorrow. Not Gordon, Spend Spend Spend and "too bad for the future generations because I won't be in power and will be enjoying my lavish state pension."
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