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 No mention of the countryside blood sports they wish to see repealed.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!