BBC Blog Network

User Profile

Financehero

Listed below are comments made by Financehero between Monday, 29th June 2009 and Friday, 23rd October 2009.

«Newer
Older»

Nick Griffin on Question Time 10:33am on 23 Oct 2009 If you believe the tosh you have written, Nick, it can only be because you live in the BBC microenvironment. If you think that this show damaged or exposed Nick Griffin in any way, just have a look at the Have Your Say today. The fact is that the mainstream parties all refuse to talk about immigration. Jack Straw appeared to be reading answers to questions last night. The audience and the panel appeared to think that attacking NG would do the trick. Actually, by refusing to discuss immigration sensibly and by effectivley ganging up on NG, it made him look like a victim.
This programme was broadcast one day after the ONS (the official government statistician) forecast a population growth faster than at any time in our history AND said that this was due mainly to immigration. Yesterday also saw an article jointly written by Nicholas Soames and Frank Field (i.e. labour and conservative together) berating the failure of governments to deal with immigration. If you wish to defeat the BNP, you certainly won't do it by violent demonstrations and by persoanl attack in Question Time. You will only do it by dealing with the underlying disenfranchisement of the white working class, which is switching from Labour to the BNP.

I know that the BBC is in love with Islam, but I would recommend the series of serious history books written by Bernard Lewis to anyone who thinks that Islam will not try to change the society in which Muslims live. That is the fundamental difference between Islam and other immigrants, such as Sikhs, Jews etc who come to live here but accept the indigenous culture as the environment to which they hav erelocated.
How to unspin Norwich 2:08pm on 24 Jul 2009 I am laughing myself silly. Labour comes out with "It will be hard to win" line and the Tories "hope for" a 3000 majority. Neither side has really understood (and nor has Nick) that there is a real change here. People hate this government. They don't dislike it mildly. They don't find it annoying. They hate it. This is now coming out from the election results. Spin just won't cover it any more.

An interesting post above about whether the tories have really changed from 1997. I would say that they have. In 1997, they were obviously bereft of ideas, tired out, infighting etc etc. Now, this could describe labour, but not the tories. In terms of policies, they at least understand that public spending must be cut. They also know that civil liberties are being eroded. I hope that their general direction will be less government and more a sense of responsibility on the individual.
How to unspin Norwich 1:59pm on 24 Jul 2009
Cameron aide emerges unscathed 4:44pm on 21 Jul 2009 At the risk of offending Mike naylor, who seems to be a one man band defence force for the labour party and its associated organ, the BBC, I would like politely to point out that the reason why so many right wing people appear so angry is that:
1. Damian McBride was actually employed directly in number 10 while fabricating stories about Tory politicians, seemingly bringing the gutter politics into the heart of Government;
2. So far as I know, David Cameron has never been employed by NOTW and is in no way connected to the phone tapping;
3. There is no evidence that Coulson knew about the tapping and he resigned from his job when it came out;
4. Those of us who are not aligned with a political party have watched in utter amazement at the spin machine over the last 12 years and the anger is a reflection of the sheer frustration at no-one holding labour to account for this.
The deliberate attempt by a labour newspaper to conflate phone tapping with David Cameron's politics seems merely to continue the long line of spin, which most people I know are fed up with.
Return of the soapbox 12:26pm on 21 Jul 2009 On a day when government debt has broken all records, tax receipts are in desperate decline and the Labour party insists that there will be no cuts, you choose to mock the style of the leader of the opposition.
When will you focus on the real issues? The actual government's own figures simply do not add up and yet this is your story.
I am disgusted at the bias of the BBC. You, like the PM, are treating us like fools.
Has the bonfire gone out? 10:38am on 07 Jul 2009 Sagamix comment 91, trying to insinuate that:
1. You are not politically aligned
2. You are worried that a tory government might be like 1984 in wanting the civil service to take over Ofcom.
I just reconcile these two statements. Under this labour government, we have the real spectre of:
1. ID cards
2. The European arrest warrant
3. The attempt to lock people up for 90 days without charge
4. Parliament square being off limits to protesters
5. Old men being arrested and ejected from Labour party conferences for heckling under terrorism legislation
6. Councils staking out homes to check where parents at schools actually live
7. Constant assaults on free speech in the name of political correctness to the point where comedians have been concerned as to what they can joke about
8. The attemted exemption of parliament from FOI legislation
9. DNA being kept on everyone arrested even when not charged
1984 is here already, if you hadn't noticed and it is a labour government that has made it so
The PM uses the 'C' word: 'Cuts' 09:32am on 02 Jul 2009 A couple of points seem to pass Gordon Brown by completely:
1. It is not just the Westminster Village that is obsessed with debt. Everyone I know (and I have nothing whatever to do with Westminster)is extremely concerned about the level of government debt and, in particular, the fact that so much of it is structural. In plain English, this means that, even without the credit crunch/recession, the public finances were and are unsustainable without major cuts, extra tax or both. The inability of Gordon Brown to recognise this, whether or not it is lying, is very frightening and seems to represent poor leadership.
2. We are sick of spin, whether it is actual lying or not. We are not fools and wish to understand how the government is going to make the most of the very poor outlook. If GDP has fallen 5% in a year, is GB really saying that 100% of this fall is to be taken by the private sector, because that is what no cuts in the public sector means. Is it really fair that those of us in the private sector are facing pay freezes and worse, declining pensions and more years in the workplace should pay higher taxes so as to ensure tha public sector is untouched?

It is absolutely clear that, when the economy is in decline, when the debt is increasing so sharply:

1. Tax receipts are going to fall;
2. The debt interest is going to go up.

There is simply no reconciling these two with a continued increase in the public sector. I just wish that GB could accept these facts so that we can have a calm and rational discussion as to where to go from here.

So, why do we not think that GB is totally honest? Here are some clues:

1. Having Ed Balls claim that debt is going down, as he did yesterday, and then to state that debt is always measured as a percentage of GDP when queried is absolutely dishonest. A reduction in debt is when you owe less money. That is not going to happen, on IFS numbers, for 15 years or more;
2. Claiming that we don't need a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty because it is not a constitution;
3. Claiming to have wanted to clear up parliamnetary expenses, when nothing has been done for 12 years
4. Pretending that the 50% tax rate is actually going to achieve anything when all independent economists expect it to raise an insignificant amount.

Essentially, GB sees everything along party lines and is incapable of dealing in an open way with the public.
'Rebuilding Labour's Future' 3:27pm on 30 Jun 2009 I notice that there are a number of writers complaining about the takeover of this site by right wing "hysterical" bloggers etc representing extreme minority views. I should like to point out to these labour apologists, very calmly, the following:
1. Labour is itself a fringe party in England, gaining 15.6% of the recent local and Euro election votes cast;
2. The last Labour manifesto explicitly stated that there would be a vote on the new EU constitution;
3. Tony Blair explicitly said that he would serve a full term, if elected;
4. The refusal to publish the comprehensive spending figures, which spell out the current estimates of tax revenues and expenditure going forward, has been widely been seen as an extraordinary trick to avoid answering detailed questions about spending plans;
5. The sheer lameness of yesterday's new plan in the face of the recession is breathtaking, whatever you think are the causes of the recession;
6. There has been a long history of repeated announcements since 1997, dressed up as new initiatives and this has finally resulted in a large degree of cynicism when new initiatives are announced;
7. The great majority of independent observers, including the OECD and the IFS, believe that the UK has a major structural deficit,i.e. it is running a major deficit even if one takes out the effect of the recession. This will need to be addressed at some stage, as these structural deficits will not disappear over an economic cycle. There is no hint of how Labour will do this or even that it recognises the issue;
8. There are tremendous unfunded liabilities over and above these deficits in the form of public sector pensions, PFI contracts etc, which will automatically drive up deficits even more or taxes or both or require massive cuts elsewhere;
9. Gordon Brown deliberately mixes up annual deficits and accumulted deficits when describing the future. He has repeatedly spoken of halving the debt by 2013, when he is actually talking about that year's deficit being half this year's (i.e. total debt still rising).

It is for these reasons that many people are angry and will not accept a word Brown says, not because people are crazy right wing ideologues.
'Riots on the streets' 4:09pm on 29 Jun 2009 Interesting comments about the election timetable. My theory is that Brown has been pressured into postponing the election until after the Irish have voted yes to the dreaded Lisbon Treaty. He will then have matched his economic performance with his constitutional wreckage of the country.
At that point his work will be done and he will retire to some cushy Euro job
'Riots on the streets' 3:50pm on 29 Jun 2009 The whole question of increasing taxes simply has no bearing on the problems. No-one surely is really so bad at maths that they think that tax increases will do much. The much vaunted 50% top rate will reduce the deficit next year by less than 3%. Taxes have been raised in every conceivable way over the last 12 years and where has that got us?
We need to make cuts, pure and simple and anyone who thinks otherwise is economically illiterate.

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

Financehero