The decline of society, due to the influence of pressure groups, and the weakness of democracy, and a medium of Democratic Government.
The decline of society, due to the influence of pressure groups, and the weakness of democracy, and a medium of Democratic Government.
The writer points out that this has not been researched in any way, whatsoever, and inaccuracies there may well be, it has been done from his memory, for the interest of those who choose to read it.
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Over a number of decades, the
On the home front, we were broke; we could not afford to buy the food that was available abroad, so rationing of food, and clothing for some time, finally ending in 1953, under a conservative Government. The unions held us in the grip of bad labour practices, which kept too much labour in the industries, and pushed up costs; this led to the first of the colour led immigration, who were brought in first time round, to help run the trains
At the same time, the reining Labour Government was pushing though policies to nationalise the railways, and road transport, with the effect that things slowed more than they needed. Parallel with this, the Liberal led National Health Service was put into effect, by the then health Minister Anuran Bevan, in the place of the contributory insurance led cover, where employers and employee both contributed towards, a stamp which was stuck to a card; although the stamps and card carried on for a long time, it was the state which was involved, not the insurance companies.
The Labour Government dismantled the Empire, fairly rapidly, during their time in office, which ended in 1949 if memory is correct. The electorate tired of the continued restrictions, It was a demoralising time, we still had ration books, conditions were just as bad as wartime, except for the killing, we were economically broke, we had to have commercial loans from America, which had to be taken up in purchasing a total range in goods, stated at the time, “To be down to include lipsticks”! This was in itself, a trade boost for the USA; our Government was hell bent to export anything, and everything possible to the States, for Dollars, which unlike now, it was then hard currency, like gold, which was fixed at 35$ an ounce, until the later part of the “seventies”.
There was a change of Government, I believe in 1949, Churchill would have been primeminister, and there was a progressive removal of restrictions, these covered almost all commodities; by 1953, as mentioned earlier, the ration books were no longer needed. There was one thing that would be difficult for those younger folk, almost all car production was scheduled for export, and here I have to remind the reader that we were then the biggest car producer, exporter in the world; the ordinary person could not buy a car, it was in the year, 1953 that restrictions on the purchase of a car were lifted, prior to that it was special needs only, and by that I mean Vets, Doctors and the like. It was in March or April that I bought my first car, a much worn 17 year old
I have outlined roughly the economic passage of time, and some of the memories, before and long past this time, people could inhabit this country in safety, there was safety on the streets, the silly term, “mugging”, it had not been invented, it was called what it really is, assault. Hanging was the reward for murder, finally disbanded in 1964 I believe; flogging, and the birch for the young had been outlawed, as also the ‘Approved School’, but at this time, and quite some time to come, the carry-over of good behaviour was ever-present, due I suppose, to the benefit of conscription to the Armed Services, for those couple of years of service discipline. This was something that the powers that be, said the “Country not afford” to keep it up, the way things are, we can could ill afford, to be without conscription, even Switzerland, I do believe still conscripts, in some form.
It was at around this time that travel abroad was allowed, allowance £50! I would have bought a lot more than today, in the main folk holidayed in this country, as we did, My wife and I toured the southwest, when we married in July 1954, I have not been to the Lizard Point, or Lands-End since, although we have always tried to get away for at least a week each year, so as to avoid one year merging into the next.
1956 was a notable point in our history, Churchill had stood down in favour of Sir Anthony Eden; this was the year that the Egyptian had culminated their actions against the
I will attempt to explain the reasons for this. The Americans were loaning a large amount of $ to finance the building of the Aswan Dam, and at this juncture, the Egyptians had pledged the Cotton crop, for the purchase of armaments from Russia, with, no doubt, the intention of building the potential for an attack upon Israel. The finance for the Dam was cut.
This was the trigger for the Suez Canal grab; an attempt by the British Government to retake the Canal by Military Action, was crushed by the Americans, by withdrawing support for the £, with the collapse of Sterling, and with also the fear that the Russians had broken our codes, and might well support the Egyptians, the action collapsed in ignominy, Eden, already an unwell man, resigned.
A leadership election saw Macmillan win over R A Butler. Macmillan being a member of a publishing house I believe was of ‘commercial stock,’ in the main he was good leadership material, he openly said he was ‘going for growth’. Here there are two things that I must point out, the Country was still not rich by any means, and ‘growth,’ although I did not know it at the time, means the Treasury prints money, and at a faster rate than normal; it is termed, ‘money supply’, it will crop up again and again!
So life was rather better for a few years while Great Britain benefited from the added liquidity; this situation cannot last in a normal world, there was no “Group of Seven” (Meeting between the worlds richest nations,) which is now 8 then 9,10, 11, as Russia, China, and India, etc. this result in collusion, whereby they try to keep ‘all the balls in the air,’ by holding interest rates low, to very low, while they go on printing money. This could not happen in the ‘fifties-sixties.’
Now we move into the political and financially ‘flat’ decade, with Macmillan still at the helm, this decade started without verve, and the writer, who had little understanding of the Treasury antics, and politics in general then, wondered why, and had enough on his life’s busy ‘plate’, did wonder why our Premier, seemed unable to continue his earlier performance.
Come the election, Labour replaced the Conservatives in 1964, there was no ‘life’ in the Stock Market, but on the other hand, we did not suffer serious inflation either, our Chancellor of the time, devalued our currency, and our premier, Mr Harold Wilson, famously said, “this will not hurt the pound in your pocket,” eased our balance of payments deficit, by ‘persuading his Chancellor to sell quite a bit of our Gold reserves @ $35 per ounce!; (something that has more recently been repeated by our present Chancellor Mr. Gordon Brown, again at the bottom of the market, @ around $270! an ounce). The price now is nearer double that!
Come the closing years of the ‘60’s decade, Labour lost to the Conservatives, around the end of 1968-69; with Mr. Heath as its leader, and with the sudden death of his Chancellor, so soon after gaining power, the replacement was a Mr. Barbour. The new Government did not start off “conservatively,” it had “growth,” in mind, although the writer was unaware until much later, a decision had been made to really get the printing machine going at the treasury, with figure of 29% being quoted.
This extra liquidity brought the economy to life, the stock market, that had languished for so long, fed upon the extra money, and unlike the present times, we were still a manufacturing, and exporting country. This new life of both the country, and its stock market was not to last, the writer was leading a busy working life, so it is only the major happenings that stand out. In May1972, the stock market, was dull, rather similar to the present time 2006, the 100 index was in the area of 540 falling 522, it was not to recover for many years, falling to 149 before reversing, but that was say a couple of years ahead. We had reversals like the miners strike, the ‘three-day-week,’ abroad, the Arab nationalisation of our oil assets. (How could a Labour Government complain, as it was its own policy?)
Mr Heath called an election which he lost, our Mr. Harold Wilson was back, and the unions were again in power, (not that they had ever been far from it anyway!)
Here we are in the ‘70’s decade, one where Mr. Heath lost his stewardship of the Conservative Party, to Margaret Thatcher, (and the old … never forgave her to his dying day) (The writer believed in her from day one!) We had inflation also ‘Stagflation’, which is high inflation and nothing much going anywhere, no national wealth, our money had little backing, and we fell into the grips of the World Bank, they started giving instruction to our Chancellor!
It was around 1976 that, under the Wilson Government, the Chancellor decreed that the wife’s earnings, could be calculated in with the husbands, to make it possible to buy a house, because of the inflation; but like all ‘sticking plaster measures,’ it only resulted in the house price quickly ‘taking up the slack,’, and with the unending result, Women have been forever in bondage to help pay for the home.
As the decade was coming to an end, we have the discovery of oil and gas under the North Sea, and the Companies desperately drilling to tap this new found wealth, which was ‘coming on stream’. Fortunately it did not come in time to save the Labour government, this was now lead by “honest” Jim Callaghan, who became Prime Minister in 1996; political life was still tough, no oil, and little gas on stream to feed the tax machine; Our ‘honest Jim Callaghan,’ told his followers that they could have no more than 5% wage rises, called the election, they voted him out!
Well we are at 1979, Margaret Thatcher “the untried” has the job, but has the luck to inherit the new-found-wealth of the North Sea, that along with stroppy unions, cheap imports from Japan, and the other Far East Countries, although it had no way got to the proportions of the present day; never the less, for a long time it had eaten, progressively into our competitiveness, we had been in the Common Market, our economy was in some difficulty, the tariff system had been cut back, hence our industries failed to compete. You just cannot have totally free trade; it does not, and cannot work, not in an unbalanced world economy.
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The beginning of the 80’s naturally, didn’t particularly ‘shine’ although it was building a base, the Government was up against various industrial action and powers were being passed in Parliament to reduce the power of the unions. In 1982 there was the debacle of the Argentineans landing on the island of Georgia, in the South Atlantic, then the main island of The Falklands, the true occupants (Original British) of these island should forever be proud (and lucky) that Margaret Thatcher was in power at that time, she was the guts of the cabinet, She took the risk, and authorised the services to mount the defence, lead by the Admirals, who had to mount the action on stitched together on very a thin margin. Thank you Mrs. Thatcher, not enough folk still appreciate that due to her alone, (and the service men who sailed those massive distance to wage war) we could hold our heads up, sorrowfully all that has now been lost, (not the Falklands); although I understand, the Argentineans are once again, poised to bring pressure, just as last time they exploited weakness, in our armed forces.
We had the miners strike, here I feel there were no winners, only losers, our northern manufacturing strength was dissipated, I feel we capitulated, we are a market, and we allowed others to supply our market, I am aware if we had protected ourselves too much, we would have made it more difficult for our exporters, but at the same time, across the world, Companies were supplying our market, and we were buying the stuff, OK it was in the main, good, and improving in quality, but a workforce on the dole is not good. Union power undermines business, I have always maintained, that to manage a country is no different to managing a business; for the good of all, it requires the best of Government the best of the unions, and the best of the populace, all to work together for a common purpose, but we never get this.
The writer was a bit puzzled as to why the stock market was tending to escalate, while many things seemed not to fit in with this, at that juncture I was unaware that our Conservative Chancellor was responsible, I estimate that during the eight years up to say mid 1988, the money supply was increased by an average of 17%, if you include the derivatives! In June 1987 Margaret Thatcher gained a third term victory, things looked settled, but on the 18th. October, 1987 we had a devastating storm which disrupted travel, the City had no dealers, and it coincided with an almighty stock market crash, followed by a partial recovery. In July 1988 Mr. Lawson, our Chancellor, raised interest rates, which was the start of a downward trend in the market, also the money supply; Margaret Thatcher had been trying to alter Local Government taxation, by introducing a Poll Tax.
Those within the Councils, took this as an opportunity to push up estimates, which increased the amount of money needed to satisfy their budgets, also those who were given the task of creating this new system, failed to get a satisfactory balance, as a result, the Labour opposition caused mayhem, by positively telling all not to pay this tax; the sad thing was that Mrs. Thatcher failed to act, she should have announced that she had had her desired system ‘highjacked’ and to return to the old system of rating, with a flat Poll tax of £104 per year per head. The writer feels sure this would have succeeded, as who could complain at tax of about the price of a pint of beer each week, to put towards local Government costs? Margaret Thatcher would have gained her Poll Tax!
Well, this was not done, the poll tax was forced through, then abandoned, our Prime Minister was damaged, also she was unaware that her Chancellor was keeping the £ high in an attempt to align it with the deutschmark., (The Snake) as it was known. Interest rates were climbing, and money supply was falling, far from the money printing or the 1980’s, in 1992 the money supply was -2%, and businesses were having their overdrafts withdrawn, so the Banks could return the stuff to the Treasury, as they cancelled our currency, so far from which it had come in abundance in years past!
Also this had another parallel, it was a time when families could not upkeep their mortgages, due to these high interest rates; so we lost our discredited Prime Minister, in this sad battle there was only one candidate who could possibly follow in the giant’s footsteps, John Major, and not because he was good, but just because he fitted, like a piece in a jigsaw.
Now we had the positive decline of the Tory party, its antics made it unelectable, as it is being witnessed with the New Labour now in 2006, only New labour is a lot more arrogant, without any standards of behaviour, whatsoever; waning though they may be, they are the party in power, and as to the electorate, this Government couldn’t care less.
Much to everyone’s surprise, Major succeeded in winning an election, must have been in or around 1992, or perhaps I should say that Neil Kinnock lost the election, and gain a nice little number for himself, as he resigned the leadership of the labour party, was put in as Minister in charge of ‘transport’ in the European Union. Here he carried on European-anti-British policies, where hundreds of millions of £’s equivalent, was given to the airlines of
Memory tells me that it was during this Parliament, (John Major’s) that Black Wednesday occurred, when the £, crashed out of the “snake”, the monetary limit, where the British Government was endeavouring to peg the £, to a certain level, to compare with the Deutschmark, which led “basket” of currencies representing the European Union. Speculation against the £, ran rife for a day or two, which cost us dear, before, Major, and his Chancellor cried “enough”, and devalued the £. So onward, or was it going backwards, to the end of this parliament, and to 1997.
Well, as I have in the past, told my Member of Parliament. “The Conservatives were unelectable,” they had lost the art of being respectable citizens, which is what they should always aspire to; it is part and parcel of the job. Along came Blair, with what we have accepted for so long, a series of lies, they were going to be “transparent”, they were to be “whiter than white!” the NHS, was not safe with the Tories! They made the promise that they would not raise income taxes; the Conservatives had not a hope, any more than a ‘snowball in hell’.
Well, so in they go to Westminster, their Chancellor cut the Bank of England supposedly free, and with the other hand, taxed our pensions, to the immediate effect of pocketing for the exchequer five billion pounds per annum, to set us on course for a crash in our pension structure, and similarly bring in over the years, nearing a hundred other forms of, or increases, in hidden, or diverse taxes.
That I hasten to say is the least of our troubles, regrettably, Blair, has done more damage to this country, than any other Prime Minister, apart from the fact that there is a complete brain vacuum, among the ministers in all and every department, which is no way to run a country, to compound that the absence of any immigration control whatsoever, is fast leading to the destruction of balance, of population and law-and-order.
There are ‘must-haves’ like there must be more ethnic representation, in our Council offices, and in all branches of our Civil Service; they quickly move up, and into management, then we see things start to ‘fall apart’, as the standard which was always the backbone of our Civil Service-to-local Government structure, is there no longer.
The politicising of our Police Force, which of course, it is no longer; it is a “service”! Is it hell, it is now a discredited organisation, which is becoming more impotent by the day, badly led by self serving officers, whilst all have to be answering to the Human Rights Act, ahead of nailing the villains. Should a law abiding citizen intrude at an inopportune moment, he or she is almost certain to be in the cells first, and the offending villain will be asked to make a statement against the victim.
Sadly, we are descending into a fascist state, what a letdown, for the men who died, fighting to be free?
Drugs, these vile substances, that are allowed to be pedalled upon our streets, to bring misery to good British families, and this is in the main, perpetrated by foreign nationals, this should never be allowed to happen; it a heinous sin, and this again compounded, by the total Government failure, to keep the prisons free from drugs, this is in all probability, one of the weakest links in our whole society structure.
What on God’s earth is the point of putting miscreants away, if you are to put them into a heaving hell-hole of drugs, if there was a vacuum of drugs, there is every chance, that they would come out without the dependency, that fuels most of the crime today! There is nothing to say that this cannot be achieved, if there was the will; visitors behind glass is essential, also prison officers, would be searched, with the alterative, that if they passed drugs they themselves would be on the inside fast. There is no alternative, pussyfooting gets us nowhere.
It just possible that, we will need a National Guard, something in between the fighting force Military Army, and the police force. The standard of discipline, not the fitness, would have to be in the same class as the Para’s is, it is difficult to visualise, but without a select type, and unquestioning loyalty, and properly rewarded, their job would be to be capable of keeping the country going, in case of civil disorder.
The government would have to disentangle itself from the European Union,
I can give an instance, there is the case of a business, which before they decided to shut the plant, and clear the site for industrial development, it was once a gas Works, but later took in bitumen from Southampton, processed it, and at one time contracted tankers out to coat our roads with bitumen, and council lorries applied the granite. Due to EU regulations, the engineer in charge of the operation had four inspectors, watching over him on this plant alone, in the whole of
In one of the processes, a powder that was needed, but disallowed, it must be altered, - reprocessed into crystals, which naturally added to the costs; need I add, in France, they used powder! So, isn’t it understandable, why the site was closed?
Another instance, could be cited, the EU, would not accept our method, tried and tested as it was, from 1934 to recent times, The Milk Marketing Board, this was the world’s finest quango, which served the farmers, the dairymen, and the public well; now it is no more, our dairy industry is badly damaged, and is dying out slowly, while the EU, supplies contracts for all dairy products, to our supermarkets, the milk wholesale price has receded from 25 pence per litre, to 18 pence, that’s how we treat our people, they can go into bankruptcy, there is no subsidy on milk!
The transport industry, upon which we depend for everything we use, it too gets no quarter from Government, the daunting amount of regulation, with which they must comply, in the interests of safety, which is fine, but there is no reward, and this didn’t start with the Labour Government, but with the Tories; even in Eire, they honour their transport people, with a different colour fuel, which gives them an advantage over our people, likewise, all countries in Europe, have a lower priced fuel than here. Commercial vehicles need a lower fuel tax, to haul the goods. To fill the fuel tank on a truck, cost hundreds of pounds; I know the business, I was there, until 1988, and helped my son, who quit in 1997.
To sum up, there is nothing in the structure of political management of this country that one can feel, is commendable. It is a lurch, from pillar to post, one chaos to another; no political party has a real policy, because they are always trying to “please” the electorate. On the one hand, you have labour, with our Chancellor, feeding far too much printed extra money into the system each year, which is keeping the present system ‘on the go’ for the present; apart from the distortion of the house prices, things haven’t got bad enough yet for the electorate to be desperate, apart from the lawlessness, but even here, the people feel, and are helpless.
We saw last week, the 29th. June 2006, how the electorate feels, so utterly sick of politicians, none of whom among our main parties, have a credible policy. Really can you expect more, our “leaders” know nothing, they, apart from ‘Ming’
Conservatism has on balance had historically a better record of managing the Country’s difficulties, there is nothing easy, if it is to be done properly; it is also an honour to serve, one’s Country, but what we have had of late, is an ‘appalling spate, of self-serving, pocket-liners,’ who are a disgrace to themselves, and to the calling of politics. This became more apparent, towards the end of the Tory rule, and has escalated under “New Labour,” utterly, and appallingly in extent.
What is even worse, they are incapable of managing our national or international affairs; they are a desert of political and diplomatic knowledge and ability. To leave our armed forces, abandoned in central Asia, is crass murder, a hundred years ago, our troops were massacred in
The
On the home front, Labour has lost the confidence of all, but those whom depend upon then for their succour; the various grades of Civil Services. The Liberal Democrats are another form, similar to the Labour; as for the Conservatives, with their present leader, well, what on earth is the use of a Blair-clone? It is a divided party still under the surface, as was Labour, once; Europe in the problem; we should pull out politically, just keep trade links only, and do it now. The Conservative Party cannot lead the country unless it sorts this out within itself.
This country is now so damaged, that it may become completely ungovernable, Blair has done more damage, since 1997, than any other leader in all our history, and appears too thick to see it and get out; but of course, his wife would never forgive him!
Immigration
What madness, to let all and sundry to come, and exploit our awfully lax Social Systems, I have little doubt, these offices have a fairly large immigrant content behind the counters in the offices, this is not the Civil Service, we were always used to in past decades, when even the humble office of postman was thoroughly checked out by the state.
With the best will in the world, this country will not recover from what has happened to it since the war, and by adding what has come about these last almost ten years, there is no chance; I am going to suggest necessary actions that would make life more tolerable, but in a thousand years, I doubt that it will come round to better things.
Hope and stability
Should Mr., no the Rt. Hon. David Cameron, choose to change somewhat, from shadowing Blair, (he has had his warning from the voters, in the last Local Authority, and by-elections) in no uncertain terms, firstly he must find out if the Party is going to follow him, if not the go for a vote of confidence, after Europe, these are some of the policies he must go for, and eventually, not on a free vote, should he eventually achieve power; to rule, a party must find a good leader, in which it believes, then remain united, hiding decent, much as “New Labour” has done for a decade, without this content, it has no power.
Starting off easily:
1. Protection of a person in own home. Nothing that happens to a felon/burglar, by your action can be held against the you house holder, or occupant. Police must give immediate response to a call.
2. Laws must be changed; to both protect the citizen who goes to assist another being attacked, no felon may bring action against such person who tries to help a victim, (tough on the assailant if he or she get unduly hurt) the message would soon be learnt. That there be no suing the police, protecting them in the course of them carrying out their duties to the public.
3. Those public bodies, such as Town, Borough, and County Councils, cannot be prosecuted or taken to law, because they are representatives, and bodies, ‘owned’ by the people and the property of the people; only punished for corruption, or not carrying out their duty.
4. Our borders should of course be virtually closed, to all immigration, only special cases, and those limited to say, 100 from Canada Australia,
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5.
6. Prisons: things must change radically; there must be no such thing as drugs in gaols. What’s the point of putting a drug taker in there if he is going to carry on and come out just the junky that he was when he went it, thieving, making everyone’s life a danger just as before, don’t anyone say it can’t be done. There must be no contact between visitor and inmate, seen through armour-glass. No snooker or other like pleasures, what the hell are they in there for, a bloody holiday? And once again, no-one, but no-one can sue the prison authorities, if he or she is in there, and it’s genuine, if anything is wrong at all tough, they should not have given cause to be there in the first place.
7. Hanging: The Government of a country are bound to do their best for the population, this about the reverse of what we are seeing in times present. We need the return of hanging for murder, we must have hanging for primary drug dealers, who destroy our young, and are the cause of most crime, and one cannot understand why this crass neglect of duty carries on.
8. Schools: The authority of schools and school teachers, must be returned to them, they must be returned their right to impose corporal punishment as they wish, up to normal past standards.
9. Parents have normal rights, as in past times, oral or written representation, violent behaviour, from this source could be referred to the police, as it is unacceptable, if we want our teachers to be able to do their job, and I have to remind, it is our children, that at this very moment that are being short-changed. As always teachers have to earn respect, but as things stand now, they don’t stand a chance.
10. The ‘Approved school’. The place where teenagers were put if difficult, they appeared to work then, I believe there is something in existence now, but these things need power to work, do-gooders are the breakdown of our society, they probably do as much damage as their opposite numbers, because they seem to wield, insidious power.
11. Cadet Corp: This has recently been suggested by a politician with ambition; A ‘National Guard’, could be of use, but they would have to have a multi role, they would have to be highly disciplined, and trained to take over various duties, in time of emergency, if there was no labour contingency, as in an absence of no-strike rules, in essential services. This could be brought about by them, after training / experience, in working in the various services, they could be drafted in covering holidays, in all the likely services that fall into this category. There would be resistance but it would have to be overcome.
12. Law, & Lawyers. There is a preponderance of these, and they are given far too much power, there is no alternative, there will be as big a battle here as with unions, advertising should never have been allowed, it should have been left as it was, if you need a solicitor, you go and find one, we were doing nicely as we were before this crossed the Atlantic. Why did it cross? Because we have too many Lawyer MP’s in Parliament! They are the self-serving type, rather like those that serve the office of Government at present.
· *In this paragraph, due to free speech being disallowed in this country, I have had to use words other than I would have chosen.
This thesis, or essay, has covered enough subjects, to set a framework for recovery, a myriad of other needs could be put into operation as needs arise, but without embracing this, as it is set out,
The writer had little education, with the onset of war, attended little village school, my school head, was ex, RFC, and on the third of September, 1939 he was back in the RAF, as an Intelligence Officer, I was just turned twelve years, we immediately went on to half-day-school, as the evacuation of London, meant that our school was shared. In the emergency, our successive teachers left a bit to be desired, our “curriculum”, a word unheard of then suffered, we were off-school when frozen up, and in the spring of 1940, we were asked to go on a farm to plant potatoes.
Come the summer of 1940, we broke school for a shorter period than normal, but as it was wartime, I didn’t return on time, as I had to help with harvesting corn, this also clashed with the Blitzkrieg, a rather lively time. My father did not encourage me to return to school, maybe thinking it was an unsafe time, until a letter arrived, on the 26th. of November, surprised, I found discipline had somewhat lessened.
I left school during May, before my birthday, I was not fourteen! The year 1941, Worked on the farm, still do, but not the same tasks!
05/07/2006
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g1927
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