A Downtrodden Society.

Yesterday in the UK, the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne delivered his bi-annual budget speech. This was no ordinary speech. This was a speech designed to finally show us, and by us, I mean the vast majority of the population, what our standing in this country actually is. In a word, subservience. He mocked us by reducing the price of a pint of beer by one penny. That means that I would have to drink around 300 pints of beer before I got the benefit of the reduction. He also pandered to the "older" generation and in actual fact it was older women in particular by reducing the tax on playing bingo. If this wasn't so serious it would be quite funny. Our Conservative/Lib Dem government are now so convinced they have us where they want us that they are now out in the open about what they think of us. Cameron says that we deserve a referendum on whether we stay in the EU. The only thing about that promise is that if he can persuade the EU to abandon plans to further regulate the money markets in London he will abandon all plans for a referendum. We have a general election coming up in May of 2015 and there is one task that all Conservatives would love to see happen, and that is the complete sell off of the NHS. That would be absolutely disastrous for the people of England. The poorest in society would only have access to the very basic medical care. Fortunately, I live in Scotland and our devolved parliament runs the NHS in Scotland and it's functioning pretty good right now. In England however, the NHS is falling apart and it's falling apart by design. The government are deliberately destroying health care throughout England. The upshot and what this post was all about was to show the utter contempt that David Cameron and his Lib Dem lackeys have for the ordinary people of this country. They hate the very ground we walk on.
Till next time.

The UK has a Police State mentality.

We are constantly reading in newspapers and hearing in news reports that the British police forces are constantly receiving more powers, especially when it concerns protests. The latest police brutality crimes are being carried out at the various protests around the country against the proposed fracking sites. Also, even run of the mill protests, and I specifically mean in my home city of Glasgow. All protests are being treated as a major threat to public order and policemen and women are appearing in riot gear and in some cases armed. The amount of surveillance cameras in Glasgow city centre is Orwellian in the extreme. The normal policeman on the beat looks at you as if you are about to pull a gun out and shoot him. My point is that our police forces now seem to have the feeling that everyone is a potential criminal and they would rather, to use a western movie analogy, "shoot first, and ask questions later." At some point in this downward spiral towards total police control something will have to give. I don't see the authorities relaxing their policies any time soon, so that leaves the ordinary citizen. Knowing the Glasgow mentality, and it is normally quite a relaxed and easy going mentality, they will eventually be pushed too far and then watch the shit hit the fan. It won't be pretty and it won't be peaceful. The one thing that could avert this catastrophe could be a yes vote in next years referendum. First of all I am not using the threat of a no vote to stir up trouble, I am using the yes vote to make the point that with a yes vote, Scotland should be free of ever having a Conservative government that rules us from Westminster and therefore a more relaxed relationship with authority and everyone working together to better all members of society.
I can hope. Till next time.

Syria, and Beyond.

The first thing I have to say about the conflict in Syria is, that it is not, and I repeat, not, a civil war. It is not even Syrian against Syrian. There are definitely Syrian nationals fighting on both sides but, it is not a civil war. On the rebel side, there are Libyans, Pakistani Taliban, Iraqi and Afghan fighters to name a few. One of the main factors is that on the whole, this a western sponsored proxy war, that is to say that the US CIA and UK MI6, Israel's Mossad and the Saudis are the main backers of the uprising. Syria and it's people mean nothing to the western powers, they are being used as pawns in a massive game of chess, the objective being, Iran and then comes the big confrontation. That big confrontation will be between the USA, Russia and China. It can be summed up in a "wild west" analogy. Instead of "this town isn't big enough for all of us" It's a case of "this planet isn't big enough for the three of us." Two of the three have to go and when it comes to the crunch, there is only one way this can go, WW3. Now. Two of the three could join forces and I don't see it being Russia and the US. China and the US could happen, they are already quite close economically but, it would be an alliance that would be shaky at best. China and Russia could probably be the most likely option because although the Russians have adopted democracy? Politically, they are still slightly similar. Anyway, that is jumping the gun so to speak. My point is that although the Syrian crisis is the focus of the worlds attention at the moment, it is but a stepping stone to a more serious crisis in the not to distant future. I watch with interest.
Till next time.
Looking back to what I wrote last year. I have to say that the "crisis" I saw was not the Crimea, Ukraine. I didn't think that the EU and USA would make such a large jump forward to direct confrontation with Russia. There must be some poker players in the EU/US military, although in this case, they seem to have overplayed their hand. With Russia already having military bases in Crimea, stand by for them to be enlarged and substantially reinforced in the near future. Putin has promised total equality to all the ethnic groups within the Crimea. Time will tell whether his promises will be kept. Interesting times to come.
Till next time.

The Real Plan of the UK Government.

People are a funny lot, and by that, I don't mean in a joking sense. I mean a negative sense. The vast majority of the UK population actually still believe that our elected politicians are looking after our best interests. In actual fact, they are doing the exact opposite. Next, the aforementioned population actually believe that when they vote in elections for a change of government, that their vote means something and there is a change for the better. There isn't any change in the policy of a particular party in government. All parties are interchangeable, they are one and the same. The right to vote is meaningless, it changes nothing and mostly, things get a whole lot worse.
The UK's present government has a plan and contrary to public opinion, it is working perfectly. The public are being hoodwinked into believing that the plan is failing. The mandate of a government is to govern fairly and in accordance with the law of the land and common law. In other words, they are supposed to be looking after our interests. This government and also past governments were patently failing to do their duty. This country is degenerating into a state of have and have not population. The haves will eventually have everything, and the have nots will have nothing. The 90 odd percent are being deliberately, yes, I mean deliberately, impoverished and the elite are being enriched with tax payers money. Yes again I mean the government are taking our money raised in tax and are giving it to their corporate masters. Thousands of families in this country have been forced to rely on food banks. This is a country that is a member of the top eight wealthiest countries on the planet and food banks are springing up in every town and city in the country. Our health care is being covertly sold off to the highest bidder, as is our education facilities. I could go on and on but, I don't think I need to. My warning is that this has already been rolled out in the USA and is coming to a country near you soon. All you have to do is research the term UN Agenda 21.
Till next time.

Fracking. The Pros and Cons. There Really is no Pros.

Fracking. The extraction of shale gas from dense geological strata. This has at last reared it's ugly head in the UK. A company called Cuadrilla are at present trying to open numerous wells to get to potentially valuable pockets of shale gas. Previously, they drilled two test wells on the Fylde peninsula near Blackpool in the north west of England. Both test drills caused minor earthquakes. The first was only about 1.5 on the Richter scale, the other was about 2.4 and it caused minor structural damage. Needless to say, the public started to take notice of this practise and uncovered some rather negative points about the whole business of farcking. The first was that the procedure uses millions of tons of fresh water and once the water has been used, it is contaminated to such an extent that it cannot be used for human consumption. Also, it was discovered that the process releases methane gas into the atmosphere. The fact that it is colourless and odourless means that the general public cannot tell when they are breathing it in. It causes serious neurological problems for anyone exposed to it. The soil around the drill sites is also contaminated to the point of being useless for growing anything. People in Queensland Australia have found out to their cost what fracking brings to their communities. The loss of all fresh water and severe illness being just two of the negatives. Plummeting property prices being another. Would you want to live near a fracking site? The only benefit I can see are the huge profits for the various companies involved. They come, drill and then leave a virtually uninhabitable wasteland.
The company involved in the UK, Cuadrilla has a managing director called Lord John Browne. Tony Blair made him a lord when he worked for BP. He is now an adviser on business ethics for David Cameron and he has a seat in the cabinet. He is completely unelected and yet he sits at the highest table of government. It's the ethics part of his remit that bothers me. First of all, when was there ever any ethics in business? The other thing about him is that when he took charge of BP, he had a mantra that he spouted at every opportunity, it was "profit above ALL else." As soon as he took over the reins of BP, standards started to slip. Maintenance budgets were drastically cut and accidents started happening. Accidents like spillages and machinery breakdowns, however, profits rocketed and that made it all right. I highlighted his past to emphasise the point that surely his sitting in the Tory cabinet is a conflict of interest with his main job with Cuadrilla? This corruption at the highest level.
There is a little town in Sussex England called Balcome that is the first battle being fought to rid the country of this disgusting practise. There are hundreds of demonstrators, many of them camping out at the entrance to the proposed fracking site. The local police have arrested numerous demonstrators for so called minor offences and they are using strong arm tactics to do it. I think that the government and Cuadrilla realise that if they lose this battle, they will lose the war, and it is a war. Public opinion is 80% plus against fracking and growing. This story will run for a good while yet and I will post any updates.
Till next time.

The UK's so called royal baby.

The news yesterday that the duchess of Cambridge had given birth to a baby boy left me indifferent at best and openly hostile at worst. There has been almost total coverage on BBC, Sky and ITV to the exclusion of every other news story on the planet. To say that the coverage has been over the top is, in my opinion, an understatement. The celebrity worshipping UK public have become hysterical in it's admiration for what is actually just another woman who has given birth. I am full of admiration for every woman, including my ex-wife who gave birth to our daughter in 1982, that gives birth. It's a little miracle. However, this birth is being celebrated as if it is the second coming of Christ. It isn't. It's a little boy who will be privileged beyond belief. He will want for nothing, get the best medical treatment our money can buy and be educated at the best schools and universities in the country. It's not his fault that he was born into such disgusting wealth, just an accident of birth.
My point is that while he will be fed the best food, 350,000 families in this country will have to rely on food banks. He will be kept warm throughout the coming winter while hundreds of  pensioners will die because they are scared to turn their central heating up from fear they will be unable to pay the bill. The royal family received a £5,000,000 pay rise while public sector workers had to make do with a 1% pay rise. I have nothing against this little baby whatsoever but, this country's government needs to get it's priorities right.
They won't. I already know that, because Cameron is an elitist and he doesn't even bother to deny it now. The crunch is coming, and it will not be pretty. The housing bubble is being inflated again and it will be far worse when the bubble bursts this time. No bailouts, which will lead to hyperinflation and extreme poverty. Civil unrest on a grand scale is a certainty. It's a nightmare scenario and I see no way out.
This is my opinion and believe me, If I am proved completely wrong I will be delighted. I sincerely hope I am.
Till next time.

The Victorian Era is Called "The Good Old Days" I Don't think so. Not Much Better Today.

I have heard in the past from people, mainly elderly relatives that they were born in "The Good Old Days" and I seriously wonder if they truly believe it. The good old days lacked for instance, indoor sanitation, a national health service, union representation, holiday pay, sick pay. I could go on but those examples will do for starters. If we go right back to Victorian Britain, we would have experienced cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis, diphtheria, polio, to name a few killer illnesses. Housing was primitive to say the least, with large families living in two roomed and three roomed tenements with little or no sanitation or washing facilities. My great grandmother said that when she was a child, her and her brothers and sisters were bathed once a week in a galvanised metal bath with the eldest child first and the rest in order of age, in the same water because he mother and father could not afford to heat more water. Health care had to be paid for. You couldn't just turn up at a doctor's surgery and consult him for free. I think I have made the point that it wasn't a bed of roses living in the past. My point for bringing this up is the fact that our society is rapidly heading back into that bygone era. The austerity measures being used by our government are pushing our standard and cost of living back into the dark ages. Our health care system is being undermined by corrupt managers and MP's. There have been numerous cases of patient mistreatment and at Mid Stafford health trust, around 1,000 patients were found to have died unnecessary deaths due to poor levels of care. More and more health care services are being put out to private tender. Privatisation by the back door. There is virtually no chance of our children, once they grow up, of having access to affordable housing. The cost of food nowadays is forcing at the last count, at least 300,000 families to rely on food banks. I could go on and on but I think I have made my point. There will undoubtedly be more to follow on this subject.
Till next time.