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saltfordman

Listed below are comments made by saltfordman between Saturday, 4th July 2009 and Monday, 26th October 2009.

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The fight over a Blair presidency 3:47pm on 26 Oct 2009 I am not a new member, I registered in January 2007.
The fight over a Blair presidency 3:41pm on 26 Oct 2009 The perfect riposte to Blair becoming President of Europe would be for the UK to hold a referendum on Europe - In or Out. I believe the result would see the UK out of Europe leaving Blair to wreak his havoc without it affecting the UK. We have suffered enough already when he was PM without being subjected to more talk without action and him grandstanding above our lawfully elected government.
Unfortunately, there is little chance of Brown (or his replacement) or Cameron holding such a referendum. It beats me why these people want to be the UK PM when they seem content to give powers that affect UK citizens away to an undemocratic institution. It seems that once we have been signed up to anything in Europe we are not allowed to change our minds. In the UK, we can change our minds and vote in a different government to remove/change laws that we no longer think appropriate, why can this not be done in Europe?
If Norway can trade with Europe without being run by Europe then the UK should also be able to do so perfectly well. We still have ties with ex Commonwealth countries and in future trade will be with the likes of China, India, Brazil, Japan etc. Whey do we need Europe to negotiate with those countries.
As for a common European Defence force, it is likely to mean British troops doing the fighting but controlled by the European Defence Minister not our own UK government.
The same goes for Foreign policy, it would be set out by the European Foreign Minster and the UK would have little influence, even less than we have now.
A federal Europe means less influence for the UK in world affairs, more expense since we contribute more financially to Europe than we receive in return and less ability to control our own lives. Just reflect on the original NO votes by France and Holland who were then not allowed to vote again, Ireland voting twice until they voted the right way and no say by the UK people about the largest change in the constitution of Europe since the EEC was born. Of course once it is decided by these dubious means, then no country will ever be able to change it. Nothing can be reversed.
The fight over a Blair presidency 6:51pm on 25 Oct 2009 A few reasons why Blair should not even be considered as EU President:
1. Why should EU trust him when he lied to the British about a referendum (and many other things too).
2. France and Germany consistently opposed him in the UN Council.
3. He is a war monger (Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq) would not suit the pacificist EU.
4. Most Britons oppose (according to Opinion Polls) most of the EU policies (agriculture, common defence, common Foreign policy etc.)
5. In the words of the British soldier's father 'he has blood on his hands' from the Iraq war.
6. Why would Blair be considered a strong President - he talks only, never does anything.
7. Blair has been an unknown and complete failure as Middle East envoy.
8. In the end he was thrown out even by his own Party and he is not liked by most Conservatives other then Central Office, so why would he be considered as a successful British PM, even if that was considered to be a qualification to be EU President.
Much worse than anybody expected 4:07pm on 23 Oct 2009 Best placed nation going into the recession(!), now may limp out of recession 2 quarters behind Germany and France.
Is it incompetence or pure unadulterated lying about the economy by this government? or both?
Much worse than anybody expected 4:03pm on 23 Oct 2009 #11 superAngry
Agreed, England as a nation and a limit on immigration will go a long way to reducing BNP appeal. There is a fine line between safe multi-culturalism and having the English heritage swamped by too much cultural diversity.
More on Osborne's plans 5:31pm on 07 Oct 2009 Stephanie,
From your article:
'So, roughly speaking, both the government and the Tories have signed up to £9bn in tax rises between now and 2014. But even on the government's own plans, that still leaves a roughly £36bn cut in public spending between now and 2014 relative to what you might have forecast before the crunch.
Today Osborne set out his stall. But even if all of George Osborne's plans were adopted tomorrow - and achieved that £7bn a year cost saving by 2014 - you'd only be one fifth of the way to the total squeeze in spending that the government has pencilled in for the next parliament.'

If the Government's own plans leave £36bn to be cut in the next 5 years and Osborne's plans achieve £7bn per year by 2014 ie 5 years, does that not equal £35bn by 2014 or do Osborne's savings only save £7bn in the last year before 2014? I do not understand your sums on this one.
It is either £7bn savings in total by 2014 or if it is £7bn per year, then the Government and Osborne's savings are the same.
Damning defence report 8:36pm on 06 Aug 2009 Laura,
If only the BBC would give you this Newslog PERMANENTLY, I would return to reading it regularly. You have shown what independent (BBC!!) journalism should be, without inane comments clouding the information, which unfortunately is usually the case.
In this regard, a week(or three!) is too short in Politics.
Thank you.
I await with interest a response from the Government, MOD, or Brown, whoever has the guts to try to spin (lie) their way out of this one.
The Silence may be deafening.
A final thought before a summer break 10:32pm on 30 Jul 2009 I think we may all have missed the point of the joke that is post #64.
Surely it is a Demob Happy parting shot from Nick Robinson before disappearing on his hols.
I have thought for some months that his BBC bonus depends on how many comments he gets on this blog, how else can the Government views fed by the spin machine of which he is so fond, which are designed to tickle the wrath of most people outside the Westminster bubble, be interpreted? Try to resist being drawn into his trap.
Treasury patches up regulatory system 11:02am on 08 Jul 2009 Mr Peston,
The title of your piece says it all - 'Treasury PATCHES up Regulatory system'.
After the worst financial period for over 60 years, the response is to PATCH a failed system.
This is a political response, the PM who as Chancellor set the failed system in place, cannot now make the necessary significant changes that are required, since his past association and electoral position inhibits that change for the good of the country.
There are many good ideas from the contributors to this blog, and commonsense dictates they should be discussed seriously by the Opposition parties and then implemented when a new government is formed, not just patching up.
Some of them mentioned are:
Split the retail and casino banks,
ensure liquidity ratios that reduce risks,
bring back salary multiples for mortgage loans,
curb the hedge fund industry,
change the regulatory system so that one organisation controls efforts, to reduce confusion and therefore something slipping between 2 or more organisations vying for the same territory (it would not be wise to disband the BoE (!!) so the FSA should go,
etc. etc.
If a new Government is not formed then the significant changes would still not be made and another catastrophe awaits us.
When we need politicians 6:03pm on 04 Jul 2009 The Pie Chart at the beginning of the article shows 38% +29% (two thirds) of people polled think some action (increase taxes or cut public spending)is required to reduce Government debt, one third do not. This is roughly in line with Labour and Opposition (Conservative + Lib Dem)support, unsurprisingly.

If PM Brown is listening to the people, why does he persist in failing to tell us whether he will increase taxes or what services he will cut?

Instead he continues his deceit that nothing needs to be done, growth (in or just after a recession!!) will take care of everything.

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