Posts Tagged ‘new labour’
Posted by michael on October 9, 2009
There is a potential disaster heading our way over the next 10 years.
There has been a lot of talk recently about an energy ‘gap’ around 2016. What that means to the ordinary person is that there will be shortages of electricity at peak periods.
Why? Because the investment is not in place for our increasing demand for electricity to be met.
A contract was very recently agreed for four new, latest generation nuclear power stations. All very good but at least three years too late! The first station is due to be operating in 2018. That is if everything goes well and the planning permissions don’t spend years in the courts being granted!
Another aggravating factor is that a number of UK coal and oil power stations are due to be decommissioned by the end of 2015.
New fossil fuel power stations (mostly coal) are needed but global warming and climate change concerns means that they should only be operating with carbon capture technology – which isn’t available yet!
Note that a number of fossil fuel power stations are needed by 2015 just to stand still, ie to replace old stations going out of service .
Renewable energy sources are promising. Wind farms are producing electricity now, and more are due to be built. But wind farms only operate when there is wind! The fossil fuel and nuclear stations can be turned down when energy from renewable sources is available, but the fossil fuel and nuclear stations will have to be able to meet the peak demand for electricity on their own!
Businesses and private homes can do a lot by using electricity efficiently and avoiding heat loss through insulation etc but the real problem is in generating electricity efficiently.
The government has the job to ensure that the lights do not go out. At this moment of time it would seem that they are failing in their responsibilities!
Posted in Blogroll, climate change, Conservatives, energy, energy bills, labour, renewable energy, UK Economy, utility | Tagged: credit crunch, david cameron, electricity, energy, families, gordon brown, government, new labour, power, recession, renewable energy, UK Economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on September 28, 2009
The BBC seem quite happy to allow Labour MPs and Labour supporters to make comments against Cameron that are an attack on what they perceive is his class.
The BBC would not allow attacks based on age, colour or race but disparaging and negative remarks against ‘toffs’ seem to be acceptable!
I would like to see how the BBC presenters, radio and TV, would react if a Conservative speaker told a Labour supporter that their views are of no value because don’t have a degree or left school at 16 etc.
Yet Labour seem to want to use class as a reason for not supporting Cameron and the Conservatives (I have heard these comments many times in recent weeks) and the BBC allow these comments to be said. Are people really not fit to govern because they went to certain elite schools and universities?
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, election, labour, UK Economy, Uncategorized | Tagged: conservative, david cameron, gordon brown, labour, new labour, UK Economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on September 20, 2009
If Ed Balls can simply cut £2 billion off the schools budget WITHOUT affecting:
- the safety of the children,
- the way that the schools are run
- and the education that they receive
then the following question must be asked.
Mr. Balls. Why are you spending that £2 billion each year when you are now saying that it was not necessary.
This is our taxes you are apparently wasting!
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, credit crunch, education, labour, recession, UK Economy | Tagged: bankrupt, conservative, credit crunch, david cameron, expenses, gordon brown, government, labour, new labour, recession, UK Economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on September 14, 2009
Mandelson seems to be leading the attempt by New Labour to show the electorate that they are wise, competent stewards of the UK’s finances.
He is out campaigning for New Labour and Brown (a thankless task if there ever was one!)
He has said that New Labour should be ’wise spenders, not big spenders’. What a shame that they have failed to understand that over the last 12 years!
Despite this being a 1997 election pledge that they have completely failed to honour.
There is clearly no reason to trust ANY promises they make in the run up to the next election.
Who can trust New Labour now?
Posted in Blogroll, economy, labour, Uncategorized | Tagged: government, labour, new labour | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on July 28, 2009
I feel that I need to ask this question because, in my view, what this government says about our soldiers is not backed up by what they do!
Following the debacle with helicoptors and the Prime Minister seeming to overide the military leaders on whether or not there are sufficient helicoptors in the battle field, we now have the Ministry of Defence trying to significantly reduce the compensation awards to injured soldiers!
In my view this Labour government have an appalling attitude towards our soldiers. It is quite shameful that charities, such as Hope for Heroes need to raise money for our injured soldiers.
The arguments about helicoptors and body armour are symptomatic of this government’s attitude. How can a prime minister override senior military leaders and say that they are wrong and that he was right about the need for helicoptors!
It is quite disgraceful that compensation levels for our military personal are well below that of civilian awards.
The fact that Brown has recently doubled the maximum lump sum payment to £570,000 for the most severely injured soldiers, in addition to providing an index-linked monthly income for life, actually condemns him and his party for their attitude to compensating soldiers with less severe injuries; for example those who are just blinded, or just lose limbs or are just left with debilitating injuries for life!
Our injured soldiers should not suffer because our government appears to have almost bankrupted the UK. Just because we have huge, huge debts to pay off over the next 30 years is not an excuse to refuse to care for our injured soldiers properly!
Posted in afghanistan, Blogroll, iraq, military, soldiers, war | Tagged: afghanistan, david cameron, gordon brown, government, iraq, iraq war, new labour, UK Economy, war | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on May 2, 2008
One answer is ‘more than 300 council seats’
These tax changes were part of a deliberate policy from Brown when he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I can remember how he announced it right at the end of the Budget speech. There was a tremendous cheer from the Labour MPs and it was seen as a real victory by Labour.
This isn’t meant to be a political blog, but it is obvious that politics influences people’s daily lives.
A lot of people have been affected by this tax change. The higher income earners have benefited from this change to the tax regime (because the top rate was reduced from 22% to 20%), the loss of the 10% band was more than offset by the tax savings.
The Government say that it would cost too much to reinstate the 10% tax free band. The people seriously affected by this tax change are those on low incomes and the government are trying to find all sorts of benefits to compensate them. I am not sure why they cannot simply reinstate the tax free band for those on low incomes, it would be much cheaper to implement than the adminstration costs of a range of different benefits.
Doing it this way might be a bit simplistic for those financial whizz kids on high salaries, but it could have saved Brown and New Labour the thrashing that it received today at the polls from Labour’s traditional supporters.
Posted in Blogroll, financial, tax | Tagged: brown, labour, new labour, tax changes | 1 Comment »
