Au revoir, Adios, Auf wiedersehen, Peut etre non (maybe not)

Two years ago the Europhile Conservative party joined forces with the pro-Euro Liberal Democrats to form a coalition that they said was to act in the interest of the country. They were both lying. The Tories would have had the same agenda even if the world debt crisis had never happened. They would still be cutting benefits, they would still be dismantling the NHS and they would still be looking after the interests of their millionaire donors.
The Lib Dem's completely forgot their manifesto the second they got a whiff of power. The pledge they made to students not to increase university fees sacrificed for a seat at the top table.
Little surprise then that spineless PM David Cameron was this week bullied into announcing there will be a referendum on Europe, providing of course the Tories win the next election..
This speech was not in the interest of this country. It was quite simply, in the interest of the Tory party. Running scared of the threat from second hand car salesman, Nigel Farage's UKIP party, Cameron had to promise the referendum or risk losing massive votes to Farage. The historic in- fighting within the Conservatives, posed a bigger threat to Cameron's Premiership than Ed Miliband could ever dream of.
Now that  UKIP's one and only policy has been adopted by Cameron the threat appears to have been averted, for now.
In December, Labour leader Miliband made a speech announcing his plans for One Nation Britain. What we have had from him is one Notion Labour- oppose everything whether you agree with it or not and absolutely never offer an opinion on what you would do.
They opposed benefits cuts, while admitting that it needed reform, they opposed every tax the con Dem's has announced but refused to say they reverse any of them if they were elected next time.

Cameron said in his speech, that he would renegotiate the terms of our EU membership and if we didn't get what we want then we would have a straight in-out vote.

In the aftermath of the speech, Labour demanded to know under what circumstances would Cameron pull us out. Obviously, it would be impossible to tell the world what you are going to ask for and what you will accept and still expect to get any of your demands. It is dishonest, misleading and irresponsible of Labour and the media to demand answers to questions that have not even been asked yet.
The fact is, very few of the people who would be voting in the referendum do not know the facts. There has been no honest debate on the pro's and con's of stying or going.
 There has been scare mongering - Pro Europe liberals have been telling us that the markets will crash , investors will flee the country and we will be completely powerless to ever recover from the recession, which is very much in danger of becoming a treble dip recession.
The Euro sceptic's tell us, we can survive perfectly well on our own, while other adopt a more matter of principle approach, claiming its time we had a say. Others claim that rules made in Brussels, such as the working time directive and the human rights act and Health and Safety are killing our economy.
The truth is that no one knows what we would be having a say on. Europe is changing before our eyes, forced into a closer fiscal union in order for the single currency to survive- the EU of two years in the future, could look a completely different picture to now. It is already in statute that if significant treaty changes happen then we will vote. It is widely considered by many in this country, that government is sovereign, which means effectively, that it applies  its laws as it sees fit.
We don't know what the implications would be if we chose to ignore some of the directives. It is said that if for example we ignored the ruling on prisoners votes that Britain would face hefty fines. What though, would be the consequences if we also chose not to pay the fines?
What would happen if we just said no to the laws of  Europe?
We do not know the answer to these questions, nor do we know if the EU even wants us. What is clear, is that there is little support for Cameron in the EU after he flounced out last time. France and Germany have refused to back his argument that everyone has the chance renegotiate. Unfortunately, a necessity of bargaining is to have something to offer in exchange. Right now Britain has little to offer. We have no money, we a dwindling armed forces, we have no aircraft carriers and are committed to spending billions on renewing Nuclear defence despite the fact we will never ever use it. So how exactly Mr Cameron thinks he can negotiate anything remains to be seen.
The irony is that while this debate rages and dominated all the headlines, the cuts to benefits, the cuts to armed forces, the cuts our health service, the cuts to the police force and the cuts to our pay goes unreported. It would be very sceptical of me to suggest that this is an intentional consequence of Cameron's speech but still it a view that has credibility, considering the austerity package, sold to us to save our country, is not working, and everyone is saying so.
The unintentional consequences could see Cameron not even leading the party at the next election. He has been shown as indecisive and easily pushed around by back benchers, and looks increasingly weak when asked to defend the parties policies. The government is borrowing more than last year. The debt is increasing not decreasing. Growth has been flat lining for months and is showing little sign of improvement. The only success the coalition has had is the success it doesn't speak about in public- the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. the elite are doing fine while the people the Tories hate,  benefits claimants and the working class are getting screwed.
The EU referendum is nothing but a smoke screen that is highly likely to never happen. A smoke screen that is more about Westminster than Brussels.
 All the polls suggest  Labour will win the next election, despite having no policies and a weak leader. Labour will no doubt, continue to do what they did in 13 years in power last time- do little to support the core values the party was founded upon. Working people.
Unless something miraculous happens and the Tories win a big enough majority to rule on their own, the referndum will never happen.

BLACKLISTED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS DISGRACE.

The hacked off campaign recently called for legislation to underpin rules to control what newspapers can print. Set around a backdrop of phone hacking which included illegally accessing the personal messages of members of the public, politicians and celebrities, the enquiry by Lord Justice Brian Leveson cost tax payers an estimated £5million.
In the end Levison agreed there should be underpinning but stated clearly that the government must have no control over what news papers print.
The year long enquiry attracted the attention of the worlds media, receiving a lot of coverage in news papers and television. The celebrities tried to portray themselves as David taking on Goliath, the tiny people against the roaring Murdoch machine. MP's jumped into the debate, eventually, some say kicking the newspaper industry when it was down.
In contrast a similar David against Goliath battle has been taking place virtually unreported. Unreported because there are no famous names involved. There are no politicians wading in, no Hollywood millionaires who's very existence depends on media coverage, claiming to have had their privacy invaded. This has failed to attract coverage in the press and failed to attract assistance from the Government because the victims of this enquiry are working class people who have had their lives destroyed by millionaire building giants.
Sir Robert McAlpine is a British company that has its headquarters in the heart of London. It carries out engineering and construction for oil and gas as well as been involved heavily in defence, nuclear and pharmaceutical industries. As well as building the original Wembley Stadium back in 1924 it built the millennium dome in 1999, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and won the contract for the Olympic stadium for London 2012, for a price of £537million.
The company is also the biggest firm accused of compiling a blacklist of 3213 construction workers, effectively rendering them jobless for three decades.
The construction industry remains one of the most dangerous professions to be employed in. Last year alone in this country 50 people died on building sites. To put that number into context less than 10 police officers died on duty and less than 50 soldiers were killed in Afghanistan last year.
Remarkably, many of the blacklisted workers were put on the list because they raised concerns about health and safety conditions or belonged to trade unions. Site managers supplied details to a consultation association often supplying false information and in turn human resources departments then payed £2 for that information to check job applications. Records show that McAlpine alone spent almost £30000 on these checks.  3400 workers were on the list by time it was eventually seized.
The similarities to the Leveson affair are striking as it is alleged in both cases that the Police were involved in unlawful activities. Some of the information on the database, finally closed in 2009, could only have been received from the police. some workers found a dossiers, which included arrests even though they did not lead to conviction. Other entries on the database included picketing activities.
It is illegal for employers to discriminate against workers for belonging to a trade union and yet McAlpine and other leading construction companies including Balfour Beatty, Carillion and over 30 other building giants are accused of refusing employment to hundreds of England and Scotland's skilled tradesmen.
In 2012 some of these tradesmen took part in a protest at the Labour party conference - even this failed to attract any real media attention.
It is an absolute outrage that men and women should be forced into unemployment and in some cases into abject poverty simply because they belonged to a trade union or dared to raise concerns about safety.
It is an even greater miscarriage of justice that their plight has been ignored by the powers that be in a county that claims to be built on democracy. The most shameful allegation of all is perhaps claims that the practise is going on even today in the £15 billion cross rail project.
Journalist's who defend the right to report stories to protect the public from systematic abuse should be deeply ashamed that their pens seem to have run dry when it comes to fighting for the rights of construction workers. Politicians from all parties should should ask themselves if this is fair. I hope the on going court case, all be it an almost completely unreported court case will result in justice for the construction workers involved so that they can receive appropriate compensation and finally start to rebuild there lives.


blacklist,  construction, Unions

The vile Delhi bus gang rape of a 22 year old student has rightly lead to world wide condemnation and disgust. The so far unnamed victim was lured on to a bus before being violently attacked by at least five men, viciously beating her and sexually assaulting her with a metal bar before dumping her naked body in the street and leaving her for dead. One of the accused arrested was just 17.
Sadly, this was not an isolated incident. Astonishingly, there was more than 600 rapes in Delhi last year but despite this appallingly high number, the doctors who treated the victim claimed this was the most disturbing they had seen. Parts of the victims intestine were removed in attempts to save her life, so horrific were the injuries.
This has raised many questions about the attitudes of men towards women in a country where females are treated worse than we treat animals.
The savage behaviour of the people in India is so shameful that the rest of the civilised world must take sanctions against India.
 A country rich enough to have its own space programme, received £280million in 2012 from Britain alone. A further $98million was donated by the USA. 
The Government, who last year announced aide to India would stop in 2015, should bring forward the plan and the developed world should turn its back on India until it addresses the way it treats its women.
Not only are there hundreds of women raped on the streets of India, there is wide spread killing of female foetuses and wholesale murder of female infants.
The police in India are alleged to be regularly bribed by human traffickers who kidnap girls to sell either as sex slaves or servants. Girls as young as 10 year old are sold to families or paedophiles for as little as £700.
This is not just a male attitude issue. Obviously women in richer families are aware that these despicable crimes are happening but not only turn a blind eye, they see these girls as nothing more than possession's.
35000 children were reported missing in India last year alone with many more going unreported.
The people of India try to justify the evil that takes place on poverty. The truth is, there is absolutely no excuse to force girls as young as 13 into marriage and subject them to daily abuse and rape because there isn't much money. The fact millions of people are living in the kind of poverty hard pressed Britain can only imagine in nightmares, still does not justify the atrocities that are happening.
One woman who was finally arrested for buying a kidnapped child to use as a servant but allowed the child to be forced into marriage raped by her oldest son sought to justify her actions by claiming there was not enough women to go round. Because the practise of foeticide is so rife, even though it is illegal, there are massive shortfalls of females in some areas of India. This leads to tens of thousands of girls who are allowed to survive, being stolen from poorer areas and sold in the richer areas.
India should hang its head in shame and must have a good long look at the way it exists. The corruption and dishonesty is at such levels that it seems to have become void of any humanity or moral conscience. There is a culture that believes men are worth so much more than women, that many pregnant women are harangued into abortion when they learn it is a girl they are carrying.
For every 1000 boys under the age of 7, there are only 914 girls.
This is not a new phenomenon. In the 1980 some clinics from Punjab were boasting that they had over 10 years experience in eliminating girl babies. This is obscene!
Although a law was passed in 1994 outlawing abortion on the grounds of gender selection the number of young girls in India has continued to decline. India has had decades to solve this problem and has failed. We, the rest of the world has a moral obligation to force India to act.
With more Indian immigrants now living in this country than immigrants born in any other country, it is little wonder that grooming of young girls, gang rapes and  sexual assaults are becoming more and more common when it is so acceptable in their native country.
This country is a ticking time bomb if we do nothing to stamp out India's abhorrent attitudes.