ConDems Raise VAT to Pay EU and Foreign Aid

Credit where it is due - Andrew Moffatt has produced this and I urge you to read all of the blog.

The Truth of mismanagement

By Andrew Moffatt, BNP Economics Department -- The chief beneficiaries and causes behind the 2.5 percent VAT increase announced yesterday are the foreign aid budget and the EU.

Andrew Moffatt“The inequitable tax rise, designed to raise £13 billion from hard-pressed consumers, was deliberately omitted in the Conservative Party’s s manifesto pledge two months ago and it was opposed by the Lib-Dems during the election.

In other words, at a time of unparalleled austerity in the wake of Labour’s gross mismanagement of the economy, the Conservative Party has once again subordinated the British electorate to overseas interests.

VAT is inequitable because the poorest are hit the hardest. Thus, those who do not pay income tax are clobbered with VAT on their essential spending. In particular, the elderly are victims.

The elderly have already suffered a second harsh winter of global cooling which inflicted a toll of some 40,000 fatalities in the past year alone.

Whereas the Government should have focused on assisting the most deserving and vulnerable in the UK, it has instead seen fit to increase its donations to developing countries such as India, which is sufficiently wealthy to finance its own space programme.

Meanwhile, the EU is absorbing £15 billion per annum in British taxpayers’ subsidies, with our net payments due to rise by some £2 billion this year.

A recent paper by the Taxpayers’ Alliance estimated that the total cost to the UK of the EU, which included its regulatory burden, at £2,000 per man, woman and child, per annum.

The extent of Britain’s subservience to the EU may be discovered on page 3 of the HM Budget forecast, which merits special mention:

The Economic and Fiscal Strategy Report and the Financial Statement and Budget Report contains the Government’s assessment of the medium-term economic and budgetary position. They set out the Government’s tax and spending plans, including those for public investment, in the context of its overall approach to social, economic and environmental objectives. After approval for the purposes of Section 5 the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993, these reports will form the basis of submissions to the European Commission under Article 99 (ex Article 103)and Article 104(ex Article 104c) of the Treaty establishing the European Community.

In other words, undisclosed to the public, the British Government’s budgetary programme is subject to the requirements and approval of the unelected Commissioners of an alien potentate — the European Union.

Another casualty of the VAT hike will be the motorist, who will pay an additional 2.5% on fuel when the tax rise takes effect in January 2011. This comes on top of recent rises, caused by the collapse in the value of Sterling against the US Dollar, in which oil is priced.

Finally, middle class families will be thumped by the withdrawal and restriction of benefits and credits to those on middle incomes.

We have long warned the middle classes that the Conservative Party is fundamentally disloyal to its core supporters.

Government Debt

The forecast for public borrowing for 2010/11 is £149 billion, or 10.1 percent of GDP. Despite the measures undertaken by the ConDem government in yesterday’s budget, the nation’s net debt is estimated to sit at 70 percent of GDP by 2013/14.

This compares with less than 40% some five years ago.

In our recent budget manifesto and during the 2010 election, the British National Party identified a number of key areas where taxpayers’ monies were unnecessarily employed and where significant savings could be made.

Our desire was to re-deploy these funds in more worthy areas and to reduce public borrowing, which crowds out private endeavour and investment. Amongst them, we specified the following:

1. Climate Change: £18 billion per annum, mainly via disguised levies in energy bills.

2 The multicultural society: £13 billion per annum.

3 The EU: £15 billion per annum.

4 Overseas Aid: £9 billion per annum.

5 The unnecessary Afghan War: £3-5 billion per annum.

6 £10 billion of spending cuts on wasteful bureaucracy.

The amount of unnecessary expenditure within these above categories amounts to some £70 billion per annum.

By contrast, the Emergency Budget, just unveiled, has identified £40 billion of cuts and tax rises over the life of the current Parliament.

In conjunction with the cuts already identified by the previous administration, this suggests a fiscal squeeze of some £96 billion by June 2015, assuming the Government lasts this long.

Let us therefore assume that the current Chancellor has already identified £10 billion per annum in wasteful expenditure in his calculations.

His total saving over the duration of office is a little under £20 billion per annum of the £96 billion earmarked throughout the term.

This contrasts with our savings of some £350 billion. With the exception of elements within point 6 above, however, none of these commitments we have identified will be touched.

That is because the politically-correct ConDem administration is as committed to globalisation, international governance and the extirpation of the nation state as Labour was, before it.

Such undeclared ambitions do not come cheaply.

Credit Where It Is Due

We would not wish to be curmudgeonly in our justified condemnation of the politically-correct George Osborne and his Lib-Dem side-kicks.

We applaud the re-establishment of the link between the state pension and earnings, although this falls well below the level of £150 per week which we advocated reaching by the end of the current parliamentary term in 2015.

Similarly, we applaud the rise of the basic rate threshold to £7475 before income tax is paid. We would like to see this raised further: low tax thresholds penalise the low paid, undermine the incentive to work and create needless bureaucracy in the form of the complicated tax credits system.

In our manifesto, we argued for a basic threshold of £12000 for all, which would require some re-balancing of the rates at which tax is paid.

We concur with many of the areas currently targeted for spending cuts.

That includes the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), which have absorbed over £20bn in taxpayers’ funds since 1999. Unbelievably, these self-serving bodies have earmarked 62 percent of their funds towards the public sector, not including over £3m to the trades unions.

In their place, we would have used the savings to reduce by four pence the small business rate of tax, thus promoting creativity, employment and expansion amongst small companies.

Ominously, we note that the Government is merely to replace the RDAs with another body, which suggests any changes will be merely cosmetic.

The ConDem coalition will not abolish the regions and the attendant infrastructure, because these are decreed by the EU.

In consequence we suspect the new bodies in place of the RDAs, announced by the Government, will amount to no more than an exercise of smoke and mirrors; simply, the Conservatives cannot be trusted.

We agree with the Government’s plan to support the regions in terms of infrastructure spending and employment incentives for business. It is clear, however, that this manoeuvre is designed to buy votes in those areas where the Conservatives remain despised and hold minor representation.

Omissions

Departmental spending cuts will not be identified until 20th October.

The NHS has been excluded and yet, as we have previously reflected, the Strategic Health Authorities absorb £4bn in taxpayers’ funds when, instead of funding this overgrown bureaucracy, the monies could be better spent on front-line health care.

The Government has also failed to scrap entirely the plans to levy a higher rate of National Insurance Contributions on employees, a veritable tax on jobs, when it takes effect in 2011.

The Government has failed to increase the budget for science and technology. Despite our historical prowess in both, our country has long fallen markedly behind our competitors.

Science and technology fuel the inventions and industry of tomorrow and, therefore, the wealth and economic base of future generations.

The Banking Sector

The Government’s austerity package is due not merely to Labour’s gross mismanagement of the economy and the priority to fund the EU and the overseas aid budget.

It is also due to the distasteful excesses in parts of the banking industry. Such financial debauchery was caused by speculators and ‘wide boys’ who risked the monies of others’ to attract colossal bonuses.

This type of practice was described by the Chairman of the FSA as ‘economically useless.’

The cost of such reckless financial speculation, encouraged by the bonus culture, will be paid for with limited growth and economic stagnation.

It will also be paid for by unemployment.

We highlighted several areas in our recent manifesto to address these issues. We note with dismay that a reform of the banking sector has been kicked into the long grass by means of an ‘enquiry.’

In the meantime, in this budget, no measures were taken to curb the bonus culture, which employs the money of others in the interest of speculation designed to reap massive bonuses.

The gung-ho attitude of bankers has been a cause for economic instability and it needs to be addressed.

Public Sector Pay Restraint v the Private Sector

The Government has earmarked the public sector for pay restraint, doubtless with a view to placing it more on a par with the reality which appertains within the private sector.

Certainly, the cold wind of austerity has been lapping around the private sector since the banking crisis developed more than two years ago.

One area, more or less untouched, however, has been the absence of pay restraint amongst the directors of many public companies. When shareholders experience reduced dividends; when earnings per share fall; when companies announce wage reductions; then clearly it is unreasonable that a significant number of company directors and chief executive officers should continue to reap bonuses at the expense of their employees and shareholders.

Good leaders set an example. Too many directors are now recipients of massive bonuses for doing what they are hired to do by their shareholders. A recent CEO of Shell cast serious misgivings on the bonus culture.

We do not question the worth of good managers. But we do draw attention to the current directors’ pay round, which has become a mirror image of the trades unions pay round in the late ‘70s.

We do not yet have an answer to this but we believe the solution lies in better corporate governance and the ability of ordinary shareholders to vote, specifically, on the remuneration of the directors hired to manage the company’s fortunes.

Presently, matters have moved out of hand at a number of companies, where directors are paid an eye-watering multiple of over a hundred times the rate of the average remuneration of the ordinary employee.

Spending Cuts, Tax Rises, Borrowing and the Economy

The Government has yet to identify exactly how cuts will be applied but the intention is for the relevant state departments to cut expenditure by 25 percent.

This will create a wave of redundancies and a severe decline to front line services.

By next Spring, we predict there will be severe hardship and a sharp fall in spending across the economy as VAT rises take effect.

In the wake of the global debt crisis, similar fiscal restraint amongst the G20 will create an additional diminution in money supply and a reduction in demand.

In these circumstances, we believe the Government’s forecasts of 2.3% growth for 2011 to be woefully unrealistic and unattainable. Indeed, there is a real chance of renewed slump.

Repairing the Economy

In essence, there are three means to address the global debt crisis, the leading cause of the current economic malaise:

1. Inflate the money supply and reduce the real value of debt.

2. Repay the debt.

3. Grow the economy and reduce the burden of debt.

Usually, these means are combined in some measure or other. We do not approve of inflation because it penalises savings and thrift.

In our manifesto, however, we set out our plans to reinvigorate the British economy.

Our intentions remain unaltered. Amongst them, our pledge to secede from the European Union will remove a constraint upon our economy which has raised the general tax burden and applied an unprecedented burden of regulation upon industry and commerce.

Our undertaking to introduce selective tariffs on the imports from developing countries will create an economic boom for years into the future as the economy adapts to produce what it presently imports.

Allied measures intended to reinvigorate British manufacturing, science and technology will ensure that Britain is returned to its historical lead in these fields.

By contrast, the ideals of globalisation advocated by the present administration and its predecessors will result in the continued pillaging of British manufacturing and, ultimately, an environment where we produce nothing.

EU-India Trade Agreement Will Grant Unrestricted Immigration Through Indian Companies

Middle and senior management classes in Britain stand on the brink of being driven out of their jobs in a new wave of unrestricted immigration from India after October this year when a new Indian / EU Trade Agreement comes into force, Nick Griffin MEP has warned.

Indian IT workersSpeaking to BNP News after making a pointed speech in the EU parliament on the topic, Mr Griffin said that the General Agreement on Trade’s (GAT) “Mode 4” was a section which allowed the free movement of skilled labour by transnational corporations (TNCs).

“The EU is currently finalising a trade agreement with India which will result in corporations such as Tata to bring in as many skilled workers as they want without any restrictions at all,” Mr Griffin said.

“The power for such a move is contained in the GAT as defined by the Lisbon Treaty. As such, it cannot be countermanded or rejected by EU member states.”

Mr Griffin said Mode 4 immigration will not count in any way toward any Tory “caps” or “quotas” and cannot be subjected to any economic need tests.

“It is effectively an open door for TNCs to import as many employees as they want from India, and Britain’s membership of the EU obliges us to accept it without question,” he said.

The development will hit professionals such as accountants and architects who have previously been largely insulated from the problems of both immigration and outsourcing.

“This is insourcing, and the professionals are going to squeal,” Mr Griffin said. “There is no surprise to be found in the fact that the two Tory MEPs who are pushing this agreement through the European Parliament are both Asians, one representing London and another the North West.”

Speaking before the parliament, Mr Griffin explained further: “The forthcoming trade agreement between the EU and India will have a devastating impact on Indian agriculture and pharmaceuticals. Indians are rightly worried by this threat to their prosperity and independence.

“But with India giving up so much, we need to ask: What's in it for Indian big business? And what is it going to cost workers in Britain and Europe?

“The answer is Mode 4 migration, which bypasses any national caps on immigration.

“Transnational Corporations will gain the automatic right to bring in Indian labour to replace, for example, skilled British workers in steel and car plants, and all the other industries now owned by Indian-based TNCs.

“The Indian/EU Trade Agreement will devastate the wages and employment prospects of hundreds of thousands of British and European workers.

“This is not a strategy for jobs, but a naked sell-out to corporate greed,” Mr Griffin said.

VAT: How Many More Lies Will the Public Believe?

Wed, 23/06/2010 - 14:40 | BNP News

The Liberal Democratic Party campaigned during the election on a promise not to increase Value Added Tax (VAT) but just two months later they are part of a government which has upped the VAT rate to 20 percent.

In April this year, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg unveiled a “VAT bombshell” campaign poster which claimed that the average family would be £389 worse off under a Conservative government.

Mr Clegg proclaimed that “only the Liberal Democrats” would not increase VAT and that the Conservatives were “not being honest” about their intentions to increase tax.

Mr Clegg said the Tories would have to raise VAT “to fund their tax bribes.”

Even more interestingly, William Hague responded to Mr Clegg’s April attack by saying that the Conservatives had “no plans” to raise the tax either.

“Vince Cable said no chancellor rules out any tax increases but we don't have any plans to increase VAT. I think the Liberal Democrats can pipe down about this now,” Mr Hague said at the time.

Mr Clegg said at the time that an analysis of the Conservatives’ proposed tax cuts or reversals shows “that they will cost over £13.5 billion a year in 2011–12 prices” but that just £100m has been specifically identified to fund them.

“This leaves a £13.4bn black hole, equivalent to a 3 percent rise in the standard rate of VAT,” Mr Clegg triumphantly announced.

It so turns out that this is precisely what Mr Clegg has now agreed to in the budget his government unveiled yesterday.

How many more lies will the public tolerate from the Lib-Lab-Con Lie Machine?

Football fan kicks off over England shirt row

A CHARITY shop volunteer has complained to police that an officer stopped her in the street and told her not to wear her England football shirt.

Tracey Rose, 30, said the incident kicked off when she left her Dorchester Road flat to walk to Weymouth town centre and a uniformed officer pulled up in his police car to tackle her.

“It’s political correctness gone mad,” she said.

She added: “I left home at 9.10am and was walking down Dorchester Road.

“When I passed Carlton Road North the police car pulled up and the officer said ‘Can I have a word with you?’ “He said I had to take my England top off. I kept asking ‘why’ and he wouldn’t tell me.

“He said ‘You’ve just got to take it off.’”

Miss Rose was on her way to the Life Children and Baby Shop in Great George Street where she helps as a volunteer.

Miss Rose said the officer told her to go and change her top but she said she would be late for her volunteer work.

She said the policeman asked her to cover the England badge up when she got to work and she was sent off on her way.

Miss Rose was left frightened at being stopped and walked through the Park District to avoid being seen by more police.

She said: “He was bang out of order and it was quite embarrassing.

“People were looking across the road at us.”

Last week a national newspaper reported how the Metropolitan Police had advised pubs that barring people wearing England shirts could help avert trouble during matches.

Miss Rose’s partner Jonathan Slight said England fans should continue to wear their shirts with pride.

Mr Slight, 46, said: “I just think it’s so ridiculous.

“Where’s it going to end?

“I said to the police I fully intend to watch the England games with my face painted now.”

Mr Slight lodged a complaint to Dorset Police on Miss Rose’s behalf and she was later contacted by Inspector Pete Meteau, who is in charge of policing in the town.

Joyce Fannon, manager at the Life shop, said she was ‘flabbergasted’ when Miss Rose got to the shop and told her what had happened.

She said: “Tracey is a valued and hard working volunteer and I was concerned for her.

“I thought ‘what an awful thing to have happened.’”

Inspector Pete Meteau, section commander for Weymouth and Portland, was surprised at the complaint.

He said officers have not been advised to tell the public they should not be wearing England shirts.

“We don’t tell people what to wear and what not to wear,” he said.

He said Miss Rose described the officer as tall and white but tanned with short brown hair.

But Insp Meteau has been unable to trace an officer who was in Dorchester Road at that time yesterday.

He said he would be checking CCTV footage to look for police cars heading towards the seafront yesterday morning.

A spokesman for the Football Association, the governing body of association football in England, said: “It is up to local police forces if they want to give out advice on the wearing of football shirts.”

Monday, May 24, 2010, 09:20

Share

'Foreign bus driver ordered my son off bus for offensive England shirt'

ANGRY mum Sam Fardon says her toddler son was ordered off a bus – because the driver found his England shirt "offensive"!

Two-year-old Dylan Hall was with his mum and baby brother Adam, aged 10 weeks, when they were told to leave the 34A service from Newcastle Bus Station.

Miss Fardon says it was only after other passengers intervened that they were allowed on to the bus.

The 27-year-old, from Trent Vale, left with Dylan, said: "As we got on the bus, my two-year-old son had an England shirt on and the bus driver, who had an Eastern European accent, said he found it offensive.

"He said, 'he won't be wearing that during the World Cup, will he'? I said Dylan would and the bus driver said: 'I find that really offensive'. I couldn't believe it.

"He said we'd have to get off the bus but I argued with him and other passengers backed me up, so he let us on.

"I think it's disgraceful. I had baby Adam with me as well, luckily he wasn't wearing his England baby-grow."

Miss Fardon says she caught the bus at 9am on Thursday, to take Dylan to a toddler group in Chesterton. She says she sent an email of complaint to First Bus from her phone immediately, then called into Newcastle Bus Station at around 3pm to complain in person.

Miss Fardon's partner Chris Hall, aged 55, a taxi driver, said: "I'm not very happy about it. It's just showing support for your country during a World Cup, there's nothing offensive about it. During the World Cup I will have England flags on my taxi."

Selwyn Brown, chairman of North Staffordshire bus users group Aces, said: "It's unbelievable. Assuming it's true, the bus driver is to be condemned. Not just because there's nothing wrong with wearing an England shirt, but that it was a little child. It's totally ludicrous."

Paul De Santis, commercial director of First Bus, confirmed the firm was following up the complaint.

He said: "We are investigating. We will be following it up with the customer to get a bit more detail.

"We are fully supporting England's World Cup campaign and will be putting supporting material in all our buses. No-one should have to accept those sort of comments, certainly none of our customers."

Parents' outrage as children told 'dress as a Muslim for mosque trip - or you will be branded a truant'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:19 AM on 12th May 2010

A Catholic schoolgirl has been branded a 'truant' by her teachers after she refused to dress as a Muslim for a school field trip to a mosque.

Staff had ordered 14-year-old Amy Owen and her classmates to dress in headscarf, wear trousers or leggings and keep her arms covered for the compulsory visit to the mosque after it was arranged to promote 'community cohesion.'

Parents at the 1,100 pupil Ellesmere Port Catholic High School in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire were also told they were each required to make a £3 contribution towards the trip for all Year Nine students.
Michelle Davies' daughter Amy Owen was ordered to wear a headscarf and trousers or leggings for a school trip to a mosque

Michelle Davies' daughter Amy Owen was ordered to wear a headscarf and trousers or leggings for a school trip to a mosque

But when Amy refused to dress in Muslim attire for the visit to Al Rahma Mosque in Toxteth, Liverpool, staff warned her about rules and said refusal would mean non attendance which would then be marked down as an 'unauthorised absence.'

In a stern letter to her family with words in block capitals and underlined, the school's headmaster Peter Lee said the visit was 'as compulsory as a geography field trip.'

He added: 'There are two reasons for these visits. One is that the scheme of work in religious studies REQUIRES children to have knowledge and understanding of other world religions.

'The second is that the school is REQUIRED to promote tolerance respect and understanding. This is known as community cohesion. A failure to do this could result in an unwelcome inspection judgement. None of us would relish that.

'Whilst I may not require you to pay for this I must require your child to participate.'

It is believed up to ten other families from Amy's Year 9 classes also refused to dress as Muslims and were marked down in the truanting register.

But Amy's mother Michelle Davies, 34, a home help said: 'It's like they're putting a gun to your head - either you go to a mosque, or you're marked down as an unauthorised absence on your record - that's it no two ways about it.
Enlarge The Ellesmere Port Catholic High School letter to parents notifying them of the trip to the Al Rahma Mosque in Toxteth, Liverpool

The Ellesmere Port Catholic High School letter to parents notifying them of the trip to the Al Rahma Mosque in Toxteth, Liverpool

'It's like they are saying she is playing truant for not wearing a head scarf. If the trip had been without the leggings and the headscarf, that would have been fine but I wasn't having my daughter dressed in the Muslim way.

'There are some parts of RE lessons that children who are Jehovahs Witnesses don't have to attend because that's part of their religion and the fact is Amy is Catholic and not a Muslim.

'She's proud of her school uniform and what it represents and she should be able to wear it like she would on any normal school trip.

'She likes to learn, she takes history and she is really interested in it, she wants to learn, but she can do that her classroom without changing the way she dresses.

'I even did some research on the internet about non-Muslims attending mosques and it says you don't have to adhere to the dress code.
The trip to the mosque was organised so that students could 'deepen their understanding and broaden their knowledge' of Islam

The trip to the mosque was organised so that students could 'deepen their understanding and broaden their knowledge' of Islam

'I also fail to see how a three-hour trip to a mosque is of any educational value to a Catholic when she can learn about the Muslim faith in the classroom.

'I can guarantee that if there were ten Muslim girls coming to our school it would adhere to what they wanted, because that's their faith, their religion, their dress code.'

The school claimed it had arranged the trip in accordance with diktats sent down by Oftsted and the Roman Catholic diocese and said it to abide by a 'strict dress code.'

Mrs Davies who has two other children said: 'No sooner had I objected to the dress code, I got a phone call from her head of year saying I don't see what the problem is, it teaches them respect. I said to her, is that not my job and your job as a school?

'Then she asked it was a problem with the cost, and I told her not to patronize me. I said it was for religious reasons. I'm not a devout Catholic, I've never claimed to be but my daughter is a white, British Catholic girl - not a Muslim girl, therefore she is not adhering to a Muslim dress code.

'The next thing Amy was in Mr Lee's office with three other kids being told it was a compulsory trip. He gave me a parent consent form, but I didn't give my consent and I was told it would be an unauthorised absence.

'I'm so angry - in particular with the letter Mr Lee sent with bits underlined and words in block capitals. And also, you can't tell me that by making some year nine kids attend a trip to a mosque is going to make his his OfSTED report look better.
The school says the trip was an exciting and unique opportunity for students

The school says the trip was an exciting and unique opportunity for students

'I had to send a letter in to the school explaining why Amy was absent, and I explained exactly why Amy wasn't there.

'What really infuriates me is that if she wore leggings to school, she would be told to take them off because they're not school uniform.

'If Muslim girls came to Amy's school, the school would probably allow them to wear their leggings and head scarf because it is respectful. If they were told to remove them, there would be uproar.'

Another parent Kirsty Ashworth, of Ellesmere Port, whose daughter Charlie Sheen was due to attend the trip said: 'I didn't see the educational benefit of it and I can't see how it would help her get a job or anything like that.

'I'm not racist or anything but I send my daughter to an English speaking catholic school, so I don't see why she should dress as a Muslim.'

A spokesman for the school said: 'In keeping with accepted good practice we are pleased to provide students with an experience of a visit to a Mosque and the chance to talk and question a representative of the community which it serves.

'This is an exciting and for many, a unique opportunity to learn at first hand how Islamic practices and beliefs map against their own.

'We hope to provide other experiences to further our students' appreciation and tolerance for faiths and culture as opportunities present themselves, as all good schools will do in the name of education.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz0niL6G7xw

British Taxpayers Now Liable for £2 Billion of Greek Debt

The proposed British share of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) bailout of Greece has risen to nearly £2 billion, despite Britain being buried in debt due to decades of Tory and Labour mismanagement.

The £2 billion annual fee could be Britain’s pro-rata share of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) bailout of Greece, a nation which has a deficit almost identical to that of Britain.

Originally the IMF had planned on contributing €15 billion, which would have made the UK’s share £650 million. That number was then raised to €20 billion, pushing the UK’s share up to £1 billion, and now has been raised again to €40 billion, of which the UK will have to pay £2 billion.

The collapsing 11-year-old euro fell 4.3 percent last week. In addition, spreads on Greek, Spanish and Portuguese bonds widened, further indicating a lack of confidence in the EU. European banks have suffered big losses, especially those with exposure to Greece, Portugal and Spain.

The fundamental flaw in the EU superstate is the notion that all members are economically comparable in terms of productivity, development, employment, inflation and other factors which determine overall economic performance.

Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Center for European Reform in London, said that the southern countries, meaning Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy, are so uncompetitive compared with the others, especially Germany, that there are permanent trade imbalances that will destroy the euro.

“The myth of European integration and solidarity has been exposed as wishful thinking,” said Mr Tilford.

According to researchers at Morgan Stanley, “[A] stabilisation fund is just buying time for distressed borrowers. The fiscal policy action taken in these countries during this ‘extra time’ is essential. If yet another rescue mechanism isn't followed by aggressive austerity measures, the problem just continues to fester — and could eventually spread even wider."

Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, explained it thus:

“During the years of easy money, wages and prices in the crisis countries rose much faster than in the rest of Europe. Now that the money is no longer rolling in, those countries need to get costs back in line.

“But that’s a much harder thing to do now than it was when each European nation had its own currency. Back then, costs could be brought in line by adjusting exchange rates — e.g., Greece could cut its wages relative to German wages simply by reducing the value of the drachma in terms of Deutsche marks. Now that Greece and Germany share the same currency, however, the only way to reduce Greek relative costs is through some combination of German inflation and Greek deflation. And since Germany won’t accept inflation, deflation it is.

“The problem is that deflation — falling wages and prices — is always and everywhere a deeply painful process. It invariably involves a prolonged slump with high unemployment. And it also aggravates debt problems, both public and private, because incomes fall while the debt burden doesn’t.

“Hence the crisis. Greece’s fiscal woes would be serious but probably manageable if the Greek economy’s prospects for the next few years looked even moderately favorable. But they don’t. Earlier this week, when it downgraded Greek debt, Standard & Poor’s suggested that the euro value of Greek G.D.P. may not return to its 2008 level until 2017, meaning that Greece has no hope of growing out of its troubles.”

Today is the 60th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, the proposal by France’s foreign minister, Robert Schuman, to create a supranational organization of states in war-ravaged Europe, which is now celebrated as Europe Day.

While the early pact between France and Germany led to the free-trade zone known as the European Economic Community, the European Union still lacks serious economic cohesion, due to the disparity between the individual member countries.

The British National Party resolutely opposes the single European currency, supports the overwhelming majority of the British people in their desire to keep the pound and our traditional weights and measures, and would withdraw from the European Union.

British tax money should be used to rescue Britain first, and not to bail out other nations.

Sun, 05/09/2010 - 19:07 | BNP News

BNP Candidate Abused and Assaulted - And The Police Do Nothing - AGAIN

A fight broke out between a British National Party parliamentary candidate and some Asian men as party members were out campaigning in east London.

The candidate for Romford, Bob Bailey, was filmed shouting out to men who shouted comments at him in Ripple Road when one of them swore and spat at him and Mr Bailey defended himself from an attack to himself and punched him. The asian youths invaded his personal space and spat aiming for his face. I praise Bob Bailey for standing up to this behaviour which blights our streets.

Police were called after 1500 BST to the fight between the two groups.

Now if you or me spat at anyone we would be arrested for a section 18 public order offence and get a £60.00 fine at minimum, what do they get for in sighting public order offences - NOTHING. It sickens me to say this but having been the victim of this type of behaviour I have to say that I am not in any way shocked of the in-action that any police force in the UK.

The Race Laws work both ways but the police are too scared of taking action against black or asian men or women because they themselves are considered racist.

Voting Fraud Investigative Reporter Beaten Up by Muslim Thugs

Jerome Taylor was savagely beaten by 'Asian' thugs while on the trail of Bangladeshi voter fraud in East London

ELECTION SPECIAL – The Cultural Enrichment™ keeps on coming. UK Muslim Postal Vote fraud gets uglier – much uglier:

‘The first punch came, landing on my nose, sending blood down my face’
‘Independent’ reporter Jerome Taylor relives his bloody experience on the trail of voting fraud in east London

When I look back on it now what surprises me is how disarmingly polite my attackers were.

“What are you doing?” asked one of the two, seemingly inquisitive, Asian teenagers who approached me on a quiet cul-de-sac in Bow, east London, shortly after 1pm yesterday.

“There’s been a photographer around here, do you know her?” he added.

I didn’t, but I explained I was a journalist for The Independent looking to speak to a man at an address in the area, who was standing as a candidate in the local elections, about allegations of postal vote fraud. “Can we see your note pad,” the boy asked.

I declined and then the first punch came – landing straight on my nose, sending blood and tears streaming down my face. Then another. Then another.

I tried to protect myself but a fresh crop of attackers – I guess between four and six – joined in. As they knocked me to the ground one of them brought a traffic cone repeatedly down on the back of my head.

When I look back on it now what surprises me is how disarmingly polite my attackers were.

"What are you doing?" asked one of the two, seemingly inquisitive, Asian teenagers who approached me on a quiet cul-de-sac in Bow, east London, shortly after 1pm yesterday.

"There's been a photographer around here, do you know her?" he added.

I didn't, but I explained I was a journalist for The Independent looking to speak to a man at an address in the area, who was standing as a candidate in the local elections, about allegations of postal vote fraud. "Can we see your note pad," the boy asked.

I declined and then the first punch came – landing straight on my nose, sending blood and tears streaming down my face. Then another. Then another.

I tried to protect myself but a fresh crop of attackers – I guess between four and six – joined in. As they knocked me to the ground one of them brought a traffic cone repeatedly down on the back of my head.

As their fists and feet slammed into me, all I could think about was some advice a friend had given me. She's a paramedic and has dealt with countless victims of assault. "Whatever you do don't get knocked to the ground," she once said. "Blows on the floor are much more dangerous." It seemed faintly absurd now. "That's easy for you to say," I thought. "How on earth are you meant to stay up?"

I don't know how long it lasted – it was probably only a minute – but it was a long minute. I don't remember them saying anything as they did it. The first noise I was aware of was the beeping of a car horn and a woman screaming.

The noise brought a man out of a nearby block of flats. With little regard for his own safety he waded in and defended me until my attackers ran away.

I shudder to think what would have happened if he hadn't been brave enough to take action and I cannot thank him enough for what he did. He gave me a bottle of water to wash the blood away and showed me a mobile phone that one of the attackers had dropped which he later handed to the police. He also maintained that he saw at least two of the attackers run into the candidate's house.

What brought me to Bow yesterday were allegations of widespread postal voting fraud. Both the local Conservative and Respect parties in Tower Hamlets have been looking through the new electoral rolls for properties that have an alarmingly high number of adults registered to one address. The area has a large Bengali population and this type of fraud is unfortunately all too common. In some instances there have been as many as 20 Bengali names supposedly living in two or three-bedroom flats. When journalists have previously called, all too often there are far fewer living there. In some instances, no Bengalis at all.

In such a heavily populated borough, a few fraudulent postal votes might not sound like it matters but when you look at how slim the majorities are here you know every vote counts. In Bethnal Green and Bow, Respect has a tiny 1,300-vote lead. In neighbouring Poplar and Limehouse, where George Galloway is taking on Labour's Jim Fitzpatrick and Tory newcomer Tim Archer, the lead is around 4,000. But boundary changes have brought thousands of affluent Tory-leaning voters into the constituency, making it an equally tight race.

So far Scotland Yard is looking into 28 allegations of bogus voter registration in London, although the Conservative and Respect parties both say they have highlighted many more. Concerns have been amplified by a flood of new voter registrations in the past few weeks in the run-up to the nationwide deadline on 20 April. Election officials in Tower Hamlets have removed 141 suspect ballots from the register but overall 5,166 new names were received before the deadline with little time to check their veracity.

Bengalis do tend to have large families and this is the third most deprived borough in the country. Overcrowding is a serious issue. But other Bengalis I know in the area had told me that it was very unusual to have any more than five adults in one house. The households are large, they said, because they have lots of children – not lots of adults.

Thinking back on my experience perhaps I was naïve to venture into the area on my own, although I do live in east London, know the estates well and have rarely felt threatened. My Bengali neighbours, meanwhile, are particularly kind and well-liked because they tend to keep a tighter leash on their kids.

The paramedics who treated me told me that they rarely went into the area without a police escort. "These kids are trapped in an endless cycle of poverty," one of them said. "There's a lot of drugs and gang-related violence but it is rare for a stranger like you to be attacked."

The slight difference, of course, is that I'm not a stranger in the normal sense. Whoever these kids were it was evident that they were no strangers to the occasional journalist and photographer sniffing around.

Last night, I managed to speak to the man I wanted to interview about the alleged fraud, and whose house I was outside when I was attacked. He said: "I am not going to talk to you about this. Why have you been knocking on my door. You don't disturb me. If you knock on my door again I will take you to court."

Police probe voter fraud

*Police forces across the country are investigating over 50 complaints of voting abuses, including 10 complaints passed to the police in Tower Hamlets where The Independent journalist Jerome Taylor was attacked.

Tower Hamlets Council confirmed it had asked the police to investigate 10 cases of voter fraud in its area, but it revealed that 3,123 late applications have been received for postal votes and it has had too little time to properly check whether they are all genuine before the register closed.

That could open the poll in the two constituencies in Tower Hamlets – Bethnal Green and Bow and Poplar and Limehouse – to massive postal voter fraud. Respect is in a bitter fight to retain the highly marginal Bethnal Green seat – vacated by Respect MP George Galloway, who is standing in neighbouring Poplar and Limehouse – and, in an unprecedented development in British politics, all the candidates of the main parties are Bangladeshi Muslims.

The council said it would support calls to change the rules after Thursday's elections, to provide more time for checks to be carried out on late postal vote applications. "That could mean closing applications for postal votes at least four days before the normal voter registration process closes."