BOXING DAY - When the Cruel, Rich and the Arrogant Ride into Town

This is one of the few days in the hunting calendar that you will see the hunt, riders and hounds out on parade. Many of the riders will be adorned with Christmas tinsel and their mounts will be superbly groomed. But what you are witnessing is the public face of a cruel and barbaric activity vested in our brutal feudal past. After the hunt has departed the Town centre the huntsmen and associated terrier-men mounted on Quad Bikes will be in two-way communication, using the latest GPS and terrain mapping facilities available on mobile devices. All these hounds, riders, terrier-men and followers after a lonely and terrified fox which has probably been bolted from its den earlier that morning. You can hardly call it hunting or indeed a tradition, it is simply the execution of wildlife for the sadistic enjoyment of the few who pretend to be the guardians of the countryside.

Cotley Hunt

This season the Countryside Alliance has initiated a programme to get more children introduced into countryside pursuits; suggesting that schools adopt a hound or arrange kennel visits at local hunts.

The children however must be very careful in case the hounds pass on tapeworm or parasites. This is because the hounds are fed on uncooked casualty farm stock, which would inevitably carry parasites, including the cystic larval stage of the tapeworm.  

A few years ago a premier English hunt had to paid compensation to a former employee who claimed his liver problems were caused by poor control of tapeworm in the hound pack. Now lawyers have been circulating details as a warning to hunts and farmers who run working dogs. They point out cattle and sheep could be carrying eggs from the same worms, making stock handlers vulnerable – and also eligible to sue. They quote DEFRA  figures showing more than nine per cent of hounds tested excreted the eggs of tapeworm (Echinococcus granulosus) and there was a substantial risk of human handlers picking one up. Not very nice to have on your town centre over the Christmas period.

Some hunts are now being requested to hold there Boxing Day meet out of town as it can have an adverse effect on trade and then there is the concern about the movement of traffic (normal and emergency services) as down in South Somerset we have four market towns (Chard, Castle Cary, Crewkerne and Ilminster) gridlocked on Boxing Day at eleven o’clock and the police just watch helplessly as the hunt ride by.

Maurice Adams writing in the 'Humane Review' in 1910, stated, "In England today hunting is an anachronism which survives only because land monopoly and an injust distribution inheritance have led our 'splended barbarians' in the absence of the need to work, the pressure of social distinctions and the want of higher mental development to seek release from boredom and fill up an aimless life by the indulgence and artificial stimulation of sub-human instincts."

This coalition government has not done anything to help the situation, in fact they have made the divide between the rich and the poor even bigger! 


Horses and Hounds and Dog Control Orders
Ordinary members of the public are limited by the numbers of dogs they can take out; each dog must be on a lead and have its identity available and be under control. If your dog worries farm stock it could be shot. However hunting hounds are exempt from all of these laws. No name tags nor collars are required, in fact the hunt may well be allowed to shoot the farmer if he interferes with the hounds, but I need to check this fact! There are also the issues surrounding horses and vehicles in the 21st century. The Highway Code does apply to horse riders, but it’s only as a guide, and therefore has no power behind it. If riders decide to block roads, there appears to be no law which can stop them. Should an accident occur between a horse and a vehicle there is also no requirement for a horse rider to supply a name and address. The rider can simply ride off into the sunset and leave you with the repair bill, whilst under the Road Traffic Act it is a legal requirement for the driver of a motor vehicle involved in a collision with a horse to supply a name and address and relevant insurance details to a person at the scene who has reasonable cause to require them, and it is the responsibility of the driver of that motor vehicle to report that collision to the Police. The Road Traffic Act places a clear responsibility on the driver of the vehicle and failure to comply is an offence. Horse riders do not require specific insurance for riding horses on the highway; it is not compulsory. If the rider is found to be at fault, the debt would be pursued by the Insurance Company for the driver either by making a claim from existing specific insurance policies or generic public liability insurance that the rider may have through other policies; i.e. household insurance or through the civil court or through the insurance policy held by the hunt, if they are a member of course. 

No More Controls on Farms Until They Start Killing Badgers!

Reading in the local press about the comments made against Queen guitarist and Animal Welfare campaigner Brian May that he was ‘utterly hypocritical to allow deer culling on land he had just bought (being implemented by a local gamekeeper under the estates land current management plan). If it was me I might have stopped the cull right away, but Mr May seemed to err on the cautious side, perhaps not wanting to ride ruff-shod over everyone in an arrogant and bullying fashion.

However every pro-cull farmer seems to look on this as an opportunity to demonise and smear one of NFU biggest opponents over this mad, bad and daft badger cull.

I also read in the latest Farmers Weekly that the South West NFU Livestock Board is calling for planned changes to TB testing and cattle movement controls to be delayed until the badger cull is under way.

Now we all know that the poor badger probably got TB from cattle and everyone knows that the mayor part of the bTB eradication plan is better cattle testing and the need for much stricter movement controls and improved husbandry on farms.

But now the farmers don't’ want to play ball, this is complete madness and we as tax payers should not be funding this nightmare.

Now thats what I would call a five star hypocritical situation!

Is the new Environment Minster Owen Patterson dead in the water?

The Tory lead coalitions blood-sport's fanatical new Environment Minister Owen Patterson who has wasted no time in colluding with British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC), whose hobby shooters have apparently been lining up to take part in the badger killing spree just cancelled until next summer; what a bloody summer that will be!

But what about the major storm in his department, namely the Ash dieback which will change the English countryside forever.

Has Mr Patterson taken his eye of the tree problem in favor of keeping his fellow blood sports friends happy?
His predecessor Caroline Spelman was also mortally wounded early on in the job with the proposed forest sell off so has history repeated itself so soon?

It was interesting to note that the following biosecurity advice to help halt the spread of Ash dieback from the Forestry Commission and it includes:

• Where possible, before leaving the woodland, clean soil, mud, leaves and other plant material from footwear, clothing, dogs, the wheels and tyres of bicycles, baby buggies, carriages and other vehicles; 
• Remove any leaves which are sticking to your car;
• Before visiting other countryside sites, parks, garden centres and nurseries, thoroughly wash footwear, wheels and tyres in soapy water;

However Fox hunts are being allowed to carry on totally unaffected by these measures!

Now anyone who has ever see a hunt in action will know that with up to fifty hounds transversing wood to wood with mounted riders and a convoy of 4 x 4 vehicles resulting in  both farm livestock and wildlife being scared out of there lives. This is a true recipe for the perturbation effect with the badgers and the spread of the Ash dieback fungus.
But a hunting they will go and go on regardless of the consequences. “The unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable” is the correct line to use in these circumstances!

VoteOK is the Tally-ho Cry as the Countryside Cavalry Ride Into Town to the Aid of the Tory Seat of Crosby

Local hunts are being urged to help and support the Conservative candidate Christine Emmett, a local businesswoman, in the Corby by-election. This is to ensure that an MP who is in favor of the repeal of the hunting act is elected.  George Bowyer of Vote-OK - the lobby group that supports pro-repeal MPs - usually Tories, has told the Horse & Hound magazine he wanted hunting people to take an "active role" in helping Tory candidate. "We are organising people to go and campaign for the Conservatives," he said.  "All the local hunts have received, or will soon receive, information about how to help." 

VoteOK was set up by members of the hunting fraternity in 2001 to marshall an of army of hunt supporters to flood in and coordinate the ousting of marginal sitting Labour or Lib Dem anti-hunt MPs and have been in operation over the last three general elections and can be viewed as a pro-Tory support group. They dress in normal clothes and never mention hunting to potential voters as they know it will be a vote loser.

They have had some success when back in 2008 at the Crewe and Nantwich by election following the death of Gwyneth Dunwoody, who held the seat for Labour for 25 years.  Edward Timpson won this seat for the Tories after a poor campaign by Labour where the ‘Toff’ issue was crudely put into play but back fired on them; perhaps it was all a matter of timing as it is clear that so many cabinet minsters are from the top public schools and the English aristocracy. 

The picture below shows the winner with some of the local Hunt Supporters who were out pushing the message that Labour are failing and the NHS is in crisis. No mention of the countryside blood sports they wish to see repealed.

The Crewe and Nantwick by-election of 2008

At the last general election each hunt had a VoteOK representative to coordinate the targeting of both marginal and now winnable Labour and Lib Dem seats. This was coupled with the support that David Cameron had from the News International set of newspapers and other media formats. Gordon Brown and the tattered ‘New Labour’ were under siege from every corner, even with the blame of the global banking crisis suddenly being leveled solely at Labour's door!

However hunting provides a window into the world where the Chief Executives of RBS Stephen Hestor and News International Rebekah Brooks are members of their local hunts. Why even David Cameron’s father-in-law, Viscount Astor is chairman of the Old Berks hunt in David Cameron’s own consistency. Viscount Astor also vice-chairman of the Hunting Act Repeal Committee, which is to lead the campaign to repeal the ban, is a huntsman and a former director of public affairs at the British Field Sports Society; now known as the Countryside Alliance which he helped to set up!

Stephen Hester the current Chief Executive of RBS

But you can’t take for granted the Great British public, down on Labour, perhaps but not quite daft enough to give the New Tories a free reign with a big majority. That I am afraid was due to the Lib Dems and in particular their leader Nick Clegg after all he did start his political carrier writing speeches for Tory EU Commissioner Liam Britton in Brussels.

But if we keep selecting bankers, MPs and top civil servants from the very small gene pool things in this country may never change. As over fifty five years ago Harold Macmillan like David Cameron an ‘Old Etonian’ was elected as a Tory Prime Minster.

The rich get richer and the poor simply slip right off the Radar. We are seeing all the gains over the last half century disappear and it will be our children and children's children that will suffer as our grandparents did a century ago, where abject poverty with squalid housing and no health care was the norm.

VoteOK is rather like the Murdoch News International media group and the Countryside Alliance they are far to close to David Cameron; for example Simon Hart the former Countryside Alliance Chief Executive is now the Conservative MP for Carmarthen West & South Pembrokeshire. Even the new Executive Chairman of the Countryside Alliance is again is an other ‘Old Etonian’ Lieutenant General Sir Barnabas William Benjamin White-Spunner, KCB, CBE, a former British Army officer and a keen supporter of English blood sports.

Please ensure that the hunters and bankers are exposed for what they are; agents of the privileged classes seeking to ensure that we remain in a feudal country. Hearing David Cameron's conference speech it is clear that those able an willing to grab for them selves what they can are the true Conservatives of tomorrow. Just push the plebs out of the way and let the less fortunate fend for them selves.
Oh and by the way it was Labour that was to blame for the Global Financial crisis, the bakers were not the blame, they deserve every million of their well deserved bonus.
The rich will inherit the Earth and the Conservative Party will help then on their way!

http://www.besthuntinggoods.com/2012/10/02/hunts-urged-to-support-conservative-candidate-in-corby-by-election/

The Yellow Tories

Having watched Nick Clegg’s question and answer session at the party’s conference in Brighton I can see no way for this party to move forward and re-connect with its membership and supporters base, which tends to be made up of moderate fair minded people from both the working class and lower middle classes.

The comment that Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander is more right wing that the cost-cutting Tory Chancellor George Osbourne just resonates the unease that many Lib Dem supporters feel within this coalition partnership.

My very own Lib Dem MP down in there stronghold in the Westcountry is David Laws who was always on the right of the Lib Dem party so he seems to sit easy with his Tory colleagues. I assume that he travels up on the train each week to Westminster with the like of West Country Tory MPs; Hugo Squire, Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernie-Erie-Drax and Oliver Letwin, all old Etonians and of course like Mr Laws all millionaires.

It is hard to believe that the current Liberal Democrat party is reportedly to be a centre to centre-left, socially liberal party when they formed in 1988 via the merger of the Social Democrat Party and the Liberal Party.

The current leadership has changed all that with Nick Clegg’s Spanish wife reportedly earning a whopping £500,000 a year as a corporate lawyer and I understand that she was commissioned by US food giant Crafts to help in the takeover of Cadbury a few years ago in Bristol. But that’s history rather like the old Cadbury factory.

Even the Lib Dem's steadfast beliefs against Nuclear energy has been kicked into touch and like the Tories it will be full steam ahead with a new Nuclear build program. Perhaps we may even hear the mutated Cameron cry of “Vote yellow and turn green!”

An Eton Mess

We have Baron Von Clapp-Trap, the Old Etonian George Gideon Oliver Osborne as chancellor who is the son and heir of a 17th Baronet and perhaps when he assumes ownership of that Baronetcy he would like to see the return the country to as is was a few centuries ago with a few wealthy ruling Barons and a sea of peasants trapped in poverty, uneducated and living in poor housing conditions.

The Prime Minster David Cameron is also an Old Etonian also but he has married into the aristocracy, with Lord Astor is his father-in-law. 

Together they have created a right royal Eton Mess of the economy as they inherited a slow recovery and in just over two years created a double dip recession.

To end on a lighter note; is it just me or perhaps I just drank too much wine of late, but having just watched an old episode of The New Statesman, the 80s comedy spoof of the Thatcher era.

I can’t help seeing the roles being played out today with David Cameron and George Osborne starring as Alan B’stard (Osbourne) and Piers Fletcher-Dervish (Cameron).

Having made that connection I was then trying to relate the same comedy pairing to the Cameron and Clegg double act but cannot find a match as good as the Alan and Piers above. 

Perhaps your Facebook friends may have other ideas?

Morecambe and Wise but without the sunshine!

Old Apprenticeships; New Internships

Until very recent times no one, from the working and lower middle class had ever heard of internships. Working for nothing was never an option for many people as work has expenses that people need to cover before they break even, whether is be traveling fairs, lunches, laundry and dry cleaning etc.

However in todays changing work environment where divide and rule seems the key to big profits to the shareholders and company directors. Get your workers working harder, faster and for less money and internships provide a ready supply of free labour, as gone are the days of plentiful apprenticeships.

I think we all know that in most towns the partners and directors of firms like legal practices, accountancy firms, general services and light engineering companies know who they will employ as future partners and directors and its usually there own sons and daughters or their friends networking via the old school tie. Something that former ‘Ships Steward’ John Prescott would have much to say about and I must say its very hard to see another Ships Steward rising to become Deputy Prime Minister these daysin the House of Commons! Eton and Oxbridge seems to be the requisite requirements as our current Prime Minster and Chancellor so readily portray.

But to return to apprenticeships which in the good old days of British manufacturing, these ran for about four years, usually from the age of sixteen to twenty. The trades such as plumber, electrician, mechanic, carpenter and gardener usually required taking apprentices from knowing virtually nothing to being experiences tradesman during that period with day release during the academic period for the theory of the trade and business.

The starting salary or wage was low to cover the apprentices traveling expenses and incidentals that occur during the working week. The wage would increase year on year as was right as the apprentices gained more experience and of course became more productive.

There is an overhead for companies to run apprenticeship schemes but it was considered the right way to acquire and train the workforce of the future and was generally fully supported by trades unions and management organisations to ensure a credible, certifiable and skilled workforce. Here diversity and awareness could be instilled into the young person during this training period, setting him up well for many of life's challenges.

But in these cost cutting times I fail to see the current use of internships other than a way to gain entry into employment that would have been best achieved via a properly managed apprenticeship or graduate training scheme. This would be fair to both the apprentice/graduate and the company providing the training and possible future employment.

To offer apprenticeships that last twenty-six weeks and no onward employment to consolidate the knowledge is in my view worthless and does the young person no good at all.

Unless we address our training in the workplace we will continue to rely on plumber, plasters and electricians from Poland and the like and ultimately become inefficient as a nation.

Badgers For Mass Destruction

The parallels between Tony Blair and Iraq and the Badgers and bTB are quite simply astounding with both science, intelligence and common sense being completely manipulated to suit the needs of the premier cause of “it’s all the fault of the Badger”. The government is simply pandering to the needs of farmers as they need a scapegoat, someone to blame for there poor husbandry and the flawed technology involved in cattle testing on many farms.

New scientific research published (ref 1) by the Agrifood and Biosciences Institute (NI) that co-infection with other pathogens (e.g. common liver fluke) suppresses cows' immune response to bTB so can give false negatives during bTB testing. Hence the bTB test can fail to diagnose bTB and bTB-infected animals will remain in the herd leading to further herd breakdowns which farmers, Caroline Spelman & DEFRA so readily blame on badgers.

Organisations like the National Farmers’ Union, the Countryside Alliance and the Country Land and Business Association, believe that the only people who live in the countryside who have a say on this matter are the farmers and landowners. Now with the chairman of Natural England and the DEFRA minster both farmers, it should comes as no surprise that the badger cull will proceed on the highly selected and massaged piece of science presented to the British media. Just like Tony Blair over the Iraq war the Cattle Barron's lead by the Nation Farmers Union have created a case for “Badgers For Mass Destruction”. This is where science has been filtered and the media spin put on the nasty vile badgers who cost the tax payers millions of pounds in dealing with this badger infecting cattle problem. They are all singing from the same hymn book as they know that this coalition government will deliver to the farmers and landowners what they want; wether it be the removal of vets from the slaughter process, reduction on food safety ‘red tape’ and of course the agricultural subsidies which go to about 1% of the well heeled rural population.

By allowing this cull to take place DEFRA, Caroline Spelman and this animal hostile government is in effect creating a new Blood Sport; ‘Badger Shooting’ which seems likely to increase perturbation and as a direct result the level of bTB in cattle will rise and like all Blood Sport groups they will claim that its all part of the countryside management plan.

Now early badger vaccination trials were very promising, so why has the Government cut back on vaccine research which is where the long-term solution lies, free of all the negative impacts of perturbation and public anger at the shooting of one of our protected species?

Natural England was supposed to look after and manage the relationship between who owns and farms the countryside and the wildlife and natural beauty that so many of us want to enjoy. But now Natural England is all ready to issue licences to shoot badgers to the minority rural pressure groups that have instigated this bloody cull.

So the culls have been done; Gloucester still running for a few more weeks and now we find that County Durham has bovine TB caused by cattle movements from the south west ho spot up to the north east. Bloody madness, next the NFU (North East) will be calling for a badger cull locally!

Don’t The Bankers Support the Tories or is it the Other Way Around?

As David Cameron tries to leave some space between himself and the Murdoch’s in the Leveson enquiry and quickly dismisses the the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury's comments on the ‘Big Society’ scheme which Dr Williams described as aspirational waffle; at last someone has hit the nail on the head!

The Prime Minster now returns to the old Tory faithful of benefit cuts to the undeserved. This time its the under 25’s housing benefits; and this with very high youth unemployment. I am sure very few parents would relish the prospect of their offspring continuing to reside with them into their thirties!

Funny how the target sights quickly move away from the tax avoidance, with poor old Jimmy Carr left to a good few months of audience heckling I am sure!

David Cameron’s attack on Jimmy Carr left him open to the avalanche of tax avoidance that so many of Tory party donors partake in; whether it be non-domicile status, off-shore tax havens or simply signing everything over to the wife who happens to reside in Monaco for tax reasons.

The photo shows Bob Diamond and Phillip Hammond the Defense Minster at an exclusive event in London, one wonders if the MOD has then need for its own bank. Perhaps the ‘The Hammond & Diamond Bank for Heroes’!

I suppose what we are seeing is the emerging of the elite and privileged in our society, simply taking what they can get hold off as more and more people become so fed up and disillusioned with the political system.

Time and time again were heard the cry we need to pay the best to get the best, but in reality we needed to pay the best to keep the secrets under wraps, its simply a corrupt ‘old pals club’.

Apart from the general disconnect people have with politics, David Cameron has been so gifted with first the Royal Wedding, followed by the Queens Jubilee and now the 2012 Olympic Games. They all serve as wonderful distractions to the dismantlement of the British society we all grew up with.

A society that hammers the young, disabled, poor and the ever growing underclass, but lets a super rich banker keep his ill gotten gains and sees him off with lottery win pension with not policeman in sight is simply not British justice.

A Right Royal View

It was nearly 15 years since Diana Princess of Wales was killed and the country went into a sort of national out pouring of grief, but of the people central to Diana’s unhappiness are soon to become King and Queen. I speak of course about Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles now Duchess of Cornwall.

Diana's sons, William and Harry are 2nd and 3rd in line to this hereditary monarchy and are not allowed to travel in the same aircraft. However they have inherited the love of blood sports which is so much part of our royal family.

Why only at the start of this year we saw the brothers fly out to stay on one of the largest and most exclusive hunting estates in western Europe at the weekend. Nestled in Finca La Garganta on the border of Castilla La Mancha, Spain. The estate is owned by the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor.

William flying into Seville, while Harry arrived on a private jet later in the afternoon. The brothers are not allowed to travel together in case of an accident. The princes took up residence in the ten-bedroom villa with a group of their rich friends. With youth unemployment so high well that’s two helicopter pilot jobs gone to the favored few.

The trip is believed to be an early celebration to mark Prince Harry's graduation as an Apache attack helicopter pilot a role he will never be allowed to use, but I am sure he will collect some medals to look good on Buckingham Palace balcony in the coming years.

The news comes at a time when hunting holidays are taking the limelight after reports found that increasing numbers of royals are taking 'safari-style' hunting holidays to shoot giraffes, elephants and loins. But Prince William and Prince Harry opted to take the secret short break in Spain to hunt wild boar with hounds and beaters - just to increase the chance of many kills.

Also this year Spain's king Juan Carlos today apologised for going elephant-hunting in Africa while everyday people in his country endure a severe economic crisis.

In an unprecedented act of royal contrition, the monarch said: 'I am very sorry. I made a mistake. It won't happen again.' I suspect it will as its in the royal blood to go out and kill something. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131587/Spanish-King-Juan-Carlos-apologizes-Botswana-elephant-hunting-safari.html#ixzz1wfMtMSHH

Our monarchy and military and our sense of patriotism all become confused as we as a nation are coerced to celebrate these right royal events. One comment I read regarding the large bunting on display on some London streets said it was like Berlin in the 1930’s and they will be no decent as the aristocracy with all the privileges and patronage of a hereditary monarchy that ultimately corrupts our society come out in force. Democracy will be hard to find in a country so tied to the church and monarchy and a bygone era.

Tory leader David Cameron is 5th cousin to the Queen and of course married into the aristocracy via his wife Samantha and George Gideon Oliver Osborne (George Osborne) Chancellor of the Exchequer part of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and heir to the Osborne baronetcy.

Surely now is the time to bring on a republic!

The Countryside Killer

The Countryside Alliance - The Serial Killers in the Countryside

With reference to the ‘Old Etonian’ and former soldier who now heads up the  Countryside Alliance says children should ditch their laptops and embrace country sports.

Our children should put down their computer games, abandon virtual shooting and take up the real thing, the new head of the Countryside Alliance Sir Barney White-Spunner is urging a new generation to take up arms and embrace country sports.

This is a concern as the Countryside Alliance is probably the most pro-active pressure group for the blood sports industry and it continually boasts of its educational campaigns to get more children involved in hunting and shooting in the countryside.

One has only to cast ones mind back to our youth and remember the cruel acts we committed away from adult supervision, whether it be placing a lowly worm in an ants nest or bullying the fat member of the gang. As within each human lies the basic primeval instincts of survival with the weakest members ruthlessly singled out they are expendable for the good of the group. 

Its during our development phase that most of us acquired a more pleasant and socially acceptable personality. The primeval instincts are well catered for in our many and varied sporting and recreational activities. A trip down to the local park and you will soon see the regular battles between opposing teams and duals on the tennis courts

The countryside Alliance has in the past used during it Top Ten Local Hero’s a 10 year old boy fitted out with a shotgun. Many of the population have great unease with activities such as hunting and shooting with our planet under climate change pressures and natural disasters. To promote these activities to children seem totally unnatural and undesirable and will ultimately saddle our society with individuals with a more uncaring and cruel element as research now shows that links exist between animal abuse and wider social abuse of ones partner and children.

Frances Maude - The Gerry-can Jerk of the Tories

Francis Maude, 58, is among a number of Government ministers amassing vast, taxpayer-funded nest eggs.But while the millionaire can look forward to a potential £43,000-plus a year income in his old age, he is cutting schemes for nurses, teachers and public sector workers. The Tory minister ruthlessly slashing the pensions of millions of public sector workers could be in line to pocket a £731,000 retirement pot.

The shocking sum is almost eight times the average £5,600 civil service employee’s pot.

If anyone thought that the planned strikes were nothing more than an inconvenient regarding child care that day or just public sector workers crying ‘Wolf’ over their pension changes then they need to think again.

We have in this collation government a collection of millionaires, members of the aristocracy and wealthy business people waging an all out war on the British workers. David Cameron him self is worth £30M and George Osbourne £5M but he will inherit a lot more. Nick Clegg and his Spanish lawyer wife and simply loaded and so far removed from the day to day financial crisis most people face daily.

Now whether these workers are highway engineers, dustbin men, nurses, teachers or headmasters; they are being targeting for the mistakes of the bankers, hedge fund managers and others in the financial sector.

Good public sector pension are in the front line of the battlefield to be overrun then they will move on to the conditions in work place. 

As the Business Secretary Vince Cable and the Chancellor George Osborne announced that the Government intends to start the dismantling many of the hard fought and long-held employment rights won over many years so that companies could have a more ‘flexible’ and ‘dismissive’ approach towards their employees; i.e. to make it easier for bosses to sack there workers. If these measures gets on the statute books then every employer will be able to tear up their HR policies and replace them with the simple phrase:- "Do as you are told or you are fired". This is just another example of the government being paid by business and applying policy for business needs only. These changes will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of workers to bring cases of victimisation, unfairness and bullying at work and these changes will affect all of us today and our children and grandchildren tomorrow, with all the hard won advances in the working environment starting to evaporate as uncertainty and insecurity become the norm in the workplace.

The rich will get richer and the poor poorer and those in the middle will end up working harder and longer for less. But just to rub salt in the wound, no one voted for this and no one offered it at the last election. Cameron and Clegg have just decided that past mistakes must be paid for and by those who had no part in the making of the crisis!

These are the words of the Governor of the Bank of England and he’s probably a Tory too!

Cameron, Osbourne and Johnson but a few!

A budget for austerity or one for the aristocracy?

As we all look forward to the budget on Wednesday and wonder if it will be one about austerity or one for the aristocracy?

We now have George Gideon Oliver Osborne and Old Etonian as chancellor who is the son and heir of a 17th Baronet and perhaps when he assumes ownership of that Baronetcy he would like to see the return the country to as is was a few centuries ago with a few wealthy ruling Barons and a sea of peasants trapped in poverty, uneducated and living in poor housing conditions.

The Prime Minster David Cameron is also an Old Etonian also but he has married into the aristocracy, with Lord Astor is his father-in-law. Again so far removed from the lives of ordinary people but he and his elitist cabinet will decide the lives of so many people.

At the top level of society Chancellor George Osbourne seeks to continue to divide and rule as a member of the aristocracy, as he attacks the public sector workers and there terms and conditions stating that the private sector needs to be able to compete with the unnatural higher wages in the public sector.

I think we all know that the private sector is driven by profit and share dividends for the few and we any need to look at the disasters that the private care homes have caused in or see the private health care responses to the poor quality breast implants undertaken. No rush to sort out the problem only a rush to protect profits and any costly liabilities!

It’s the same old tactic of divide and rule with the ‘sound byte’ taxpayers money should not be used for union work! But on the other hand it’s OK for many private companies to be supported by the taxpayer either during startup or the expansion phase; and many given National Insurance holidays and tax breaks for taking on staff.

No one likes to see taxpayers money  being used inappropriately and so one should cast our minds back a few years to the ‘Expenses Scandal’ when David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne were in opposition and acted with greed as both are fabulously rich with David Cameron having in excess of £30m, and George Osborne estimated worth is £4m and will inherit a great deal more as heir to the Osborne baronetcy. Yet these two men had structured their personal affairs so that British taxpayers financed mortgages on their second homes of about £300,000. Neither needed to have mortgages on their second home, and neither man needed to claim the second home allowance from the taxpayer, yet they both did they ‘milked’ the situation. 

These changes to many in the public sector are being progressed by a Chancellor and Prime Minster born into a life so privileged and one wonders what the full impact was with the Rupert Murdoch supporting the Conservative party together with all the captains of industry, all singing from the same hymn book that free market forces and private investment is the only way forward.

The rich have inherited the Earth and soon a camel will be able to pass through the eye of a needle!

Shame on those people who did not vote and more shame on those who voted Liberal Democrat.

Whose Horse Will David Cameron Ride Next?

I must scream hear we go again as what we have in David Cameron is a Public Relations Prime Minister following an endless of PR stunts . This time around its the Tory Math’s guru Carol Voderman added to his team of millionaire advisors, Carol is most famous for Countdown but less well known for all the lives she destroyed with her consolidation loans (sub-prime lending), remember those nasty adverts for Firstplus loans fronted by Carol Voderman. As a mathematician she must have known that the last thing people in debit need to do is borrow more! They were  many financial commentators begging her to stop fronting the FirstPlus remortgaging and consolidating home loads bank. All this with a third class engineering degree, my how standards are falling! But I am sure her bank balance grew nicely.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said: "We want the vast majority of young people to study maths up to 18 within a decade to meet the growing demand for employees with high level and intermediate maths skills. 

"We are undertaking a root-and-branch review of how maths is taught in schools, attracting the best maths graduates into the profession." 

The study which was originally commissioned by the Tories in opposition as part of the ‘scare tactic’ they used to oust New Labour, warns that English pupils are already around two years behind peers in the Far East and are less likely to study math’s to a high standard than in most other developed nations. 

But hold on a minute, how are you going to get the best maths graduates when public sector wages and pensions are under such a concerted attack; gone are the teachers ‘gold plated’ pensions, “aren't they?” And don’t teachers have too much time off with many inset days and long school holidays, I mean we all know they only work 9 to 3:30 each day!

However on 2 March 2010 Carol Vorderman publicly launched her new commercial venture of an online mathematics coaching system for 4 – 12 year old children under the name of the MathsFactor. Here in Chard we are often subjected to a glossy Carol on Car Insurance flyers; she sure has a love of figures, especially whose with ‘£’ in front of them.

She is par of a long line of Tory Guru’s that our PR Prime Minster roles out; with James Dyson the Technology Guru; he sees himself move up the ‘Rich List'; probably helped by the shedding over 800  UK  jobs to Maylisa. Is this the way ahead for British manufacturing as Dyson cleans up!

Then we have the Welfare to Work Guru Emma Harrison who recently stepped down amidst financial irregularities, not going empty handed as she was pain £8.6 in dividends last year.

You only need to look at who funds the Conservative party to understand the drive to cuts corporation and top earners 50p tax. It will be interesting to see if Clegg and Cable can win the argument of lifting the tax threshold for the low paid or will they suffer other defeats the like AV vote and Tuition Fees and be blamed for the NHS reforms which they failed to get the required safe guards.

The 7th Year of the Hunting Act

If ever there was a case of everyone taking the time to understand the threat that our wildlife is under from the pressures that are building up to overturn the Hunting Act of 2004.

The main political pressure group of the blood sports fanatics is the Countryside Alliance now headed by Old Etonian and Former head of the UK Field Army, Lieutenant General Sir Barney White-Spunner and like former military Editors of the Baileys Hunting Directory they seem to have found time to edit this ‘Hunting Bible’  while serving in volatile conflict zones of Afghanistan or Iraqi. Barney White-Spunner is a writer and countryman and a long term supporter of all country pursuits and was President of the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles and well ‘blooded’ to lead this war on our wildlife.

The greatest threat to our wildlife is the possible bill that will allow some sort of new self-regulating body in attempt to make repeal of the ban on hunting with dogs acceptable and necessary to the general public. These secret plans to reintroduce hunting foxes, stags, hares and minks have been drawn up with the backing of many Conservative MPs. Details of the controversial scheme include the creation of a Hunt Regulatory Authority (HRA) to monitor the behavior of hunts. The plans were drawn up by lawyers and the Countryside Alliance, but aren’t these the people who hunt? This HRA has the blessing of many high profile Tories including the Prime Minster, himself a hunter, William Hague, and Dominic Grieve, the current Attorney General. 

Well what a novel idea especially following the banking crisis where the hunters regulate themselves. It’s rather like putting a sex offender in charge of playground duty!

Currently we have hunts claiming to be ‘Trail Hunting’ but time and time again we keep getting reports of Hunt Havoc in towns and villages up and down the country: 

“A few hounds strayed into the garden and unfortunately mistakenly attacked the families pet cat. The huntsman did make every effort to call the hounds off but it was too late”.

“The incident was the result of a misunderstanding over a right of way between fields and the road”.

“The hounds ventured off the trail and got into the back of the village”.

“The hounds took off after a fox while out trail hunting, it was an unfortunate accident.” 

Many of these incidents take place on private property where people have set aside parcels of land for the benefit of local wildlife.

No doubt we will hear from the hunters that the law is not working and this I agree with this. We need the police to enforce it and if they have problems then get the act modified to close the many silly loop holes that are so ruthlessly exploited by the cruel hunters.

Tory Fat Cats - Built on Wealth

Fundraising Auction at the Battersea Evolution venue in London - Feb 2012

If anyone still thinks that David Cameron has the interest of the common people then they need to think again. So much for Cameron’s pre-election promise of ‘Openness and transparency’ as the Tories went to great lengths to keep the black-and-white-tie fund raising party a secret to avoid letting the big fat cat lie out of the bag!

The list of people able and willing to denote thousands to the party’s funds in order to win an outright election and be free of any calming effects that the Liberal Democrats may think they exert. It was almost a Bankers and Hedge Fund Managers Ball.

The secret event was sponsored by the investment group Shore Capital with party supporters dining on spectacular banquet feast with of course the very best French wines to wash it all down.

Wealthy donors paid up to £10,000 for tables with the top prices being paid for those close to Cameron and his Minsters. The former party treasurer Michael Spencer the Chief Executive of ICAP the worlds largest inter-dealer broker and the owner of ‘Spread Betting’ firm City Index was present along with the current treasurer Baron Fink the Godfather of the UK hedge fund industry and a frequent guest at the Prime Minster official country home of Chequers. Others in attendance was another hedge fund boss Michael Hintze and the Swiss banker Henry Angest.

The auction was conducted by Tory supporter Sotheby’s chairman Henry Wyndham and for a taste of some items sold during the night see the list below:-

• A bronze status of Baroness Thatcher was sold for £120,000

• Shooting for a party of eight on the Tusmore Park estate in Oxfordshire, with pheasants, partridges and ducks as the targets’.

• Dinner for eight with Boris Johnson at a top London restaurant went for £55,000.

• An Everest trek with adventurer David Hempleman-Adams sold for £20,000.

• An offer of a self portrait painted by artist Darren Baker sold for £40,000.

• A day's shooting for eight guns in Oxfordshire with Lunch thrown in sold for £55,000

They were many other bloodspots events on offer with some selling for £55,000 and stalking at Buckhurst Park was sold but the winning bid was not released.

However unlike last year’s event they were no internships with top City firms available for auction. These usually sell for thousands of pounds for the benefit of the children of party donors. That is now seen as sheer favouritism and perhaps buying success for ones offspring, so reluctantly removed from the auction this year.

Conservative Party treasurer Baron Fink addressed the party supporters and told them that we need to raise enough money to govern this country without the Liberal Democrates. This time we ‘the Conservatives’ must blow all opposition to us out of the water.