Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 did a piece about Britannia being removed from 50 pence coins today. What is wrong with Britannia? 

Why oh why does this government insist on removing British national symbols from everything? Why are the new passports so bland? Why have the pound coins got bridges on them instead of leeks for Wales for example?  

I am definitely no raving nationalist! But we shouldn’t be ashamed of our heritage, Britain has a proud history of tolerance and freedom.  In these days of globalism we need strong symbols of British-ness. The Euro coins across Europe from Finland to Portugal, Malta to Luxembourg have proud symbols of their national heritage on the ‘head’ side.  

I say we keep Britannia, like France has Marian, Germany has the eagle and Ireland has the harp.   The problem is Mr. Brown the there will be a backlash to all this political correctness rubbish and it won’t be moderate liberal internationalists like me who will do it but ignorant right-wing nasty white supremacists

The Government has today published its much delayed review of voting systems which examines the experiences of the different forms of elections introduced over the last ten years in the UK.  The 1997 Labour Party manifesto committed the party to holding a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. They have broken this promise. 

 The Government have come up with excuse after excuse for their delays. The latest one, set out in a written ministerial statement by Justice Minister Michael Wills today, is: “At this point, it would be premature to seek to reform the electoral system for the Commons while the voting system for a reformed and substantially or fully elected House of Lords is still to be determined.”   So the Government’s excuse for delaying action on electoral reform is their continuing delay of Lords reform. As Nick Clegg says, “It takes a peculiar kind of genius for ministers to spend a decade deciding what to do with our voting system before reaching the conclusion that we should wait a bit longer.” 

The only ‘proportional representation’ used for any election in Littlehampton is the ‘D’Hondt’ system used for elections to the European Parliament. The D’Hondt system gives an incredible amount of power to political parties, and because the EP elections are held on a regional scale, gives an immense power to ‘central office’ within those parties. I have no doubt that the D’Hondt system undermines the PR argument, I even would question whether it’s better than ‘first past the post’. 

The government press release and ministerial statement (and, consequently, most media coverage) on the review give a misleading picture of the actual contents of the 197 page review. Despite being a government report, prepared by civil servants and issued by ministers, the truth is that the review is reasonably balanced. Its conclusions back up many of the arguments used by pro-fair votes campaigners and undermine much of the case made by those who are against reform. 

The Conservatives have formed a co-operative movement. The rival Co-operative party chief has said “It’s a backhanded compliment that the work that we have been doing is sufficiently interesting for them to want to nick it” 

I don’t think co-operative ideas are either left or right wing, they are deeply rooted in the working-class struggle for survival and a solution (I believe the best) to poverty and exploitation in a capitalist system, I have never understood how the co-operative party could have remained allied to Labour, with their strict control and state socialism of 1945-79 or even more breathtaking………New Labour!! 

The Conservatives are on a mission to win the next election, and like Bliar 1994-7 will do and say anything to get there.  

I heard on EuroNews that Bliar wants to be the first president of Europe. The last thing that the European Union needs is a liar with the blood of thousands of people on his hands at it’s head, a failed leader who’s only ‘success’ was to steal the traditional freedoms of the good British people. Bliar wants to turn the rest of this continent into a big brother open prison so I think that someone else should be the president of Europe and Bliar should remain working with those bankers at JP Morgan.

Gordy’s lot are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the British public about the ID database. Even members of the naïve “if you’ve got nothing to hide” brigade are starting to realise exactly how far-reaching this legislation is. Gordy and his cronies have to realise that they work for us - we are not owned by him! 

ID cards WILL BE COMPULSORY.
The Identity Cards Act 2006 lets the Home Office “designate” any official document. Individuals applying for a “designated document” MUST ALSO apply to be entered onto the National Identity Register, or provide evidence that they are already on it [4]. The plan is you will be forced to “volunteer”. Unless Home Office plans have secretly changed, this will (from a date not yet fixed) include everyone applying for a passport, followed (according to ministerial statements) by everyone subject to CRB check, including teachers, medical staff, security guards and carers. Once on the Register, you cannot leave, and must *compulsorily* notify officials of all changes in ‘registrable facts’ about you in those 50 categories.

37 million items of personal data went missing last year. 

Most of the data was lost by government officials but councils, NHS trusts, banks, insurance companies and chain stores also mislaid or published personal information about staff or members of the public. The details lost included those of names, addresses, passports, bank and mortgage accounts, credit cards, hospital records, dates of birth, national insurance numbers, driving licences and telephone numbers.  

2007 was the worst ever year for personal privacy. This record of data loss means we need a total rethink on data protection enforcement and an immediate end to the Identity database plan. The ID database project is now in serious question, because faith in the Government’s ability to handle personal data has hit crisis point. There is simply no way that any “democratic” government can expect the public to accept having their precious personal data stored in the world’s largest database when they are not confident that database will be safe.

Labour’s pathetic popular vote in the 2005 general election does not give them a moral mandate to introduce this creepy big brother scheme.

People are beginning to realise that the only way to stop abuse of confidential information is not to have to give it to the authorities in the first place. If enough people say “No, I will not cooperate”, then the ID database system simply cannot be implemented.

I saw Gordy on Andrew Marr this morning. I wasn’t very impressed with him. I liken Gordy to the little boy who waits years and years to inherit his big brothers bike and when he finally gets it, it’s broken, rusty and out-of-fashon!

 Bliar waited until he was absolutely hated before handing over the poison challace of the New Labour leadership, so unwanted that no-one challenged Gordy for it!Gordy’s premiership follows a long line of second-rate national leaders including Neville Chamberlain, Alec Dougals-Home and Jim Callaghan. 

Gordy sidestepped the question about local hospitals, talking about people preferring to go to a specialist unit, even if it’s further away. Well thats fine if you live in London, but we could be dead by the time we get to Southampton or wherever! The fact is, Gordy thinks HE knows whats best for us, good old top-down government!

I have made it on to the front of the Littlehampton Gazette this week! (Un)fortunately  I’m almost a blur in the corner of the picture covering the hospitals debate. My freinds Dave Leggatt and David Jones also made it into the Gazette. 

I have to speak-up about the trouble in Kenya, which had been a beacon of democracy on a continent of dictatorships. Kenyans are known throughout Africa for being peace-loving and I hope that the troubles don’t escalate.