Guido is in Hong Kong...
Hong Kong is nominally now under communist control, yet has a low income tax rate of 16%, a free market economy and limited government. This combined with its free trade port status makes it a reform model for the developing post-communist world.
It consistently tops the Reaganite Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom. Judging by reports Vince Cable would love it here - at an off-the-record* post-budget briefing he gave to clients of pollsters ComRes, he lauded Nigel Lawson's tax reforms and Ronald Reagan's rolling back of big government. Vince was happily quoting Reagan’s dictum that the most chilling thing you can be told is “We're from the government and we are here to help you.”
As George Osborne promises to stick to Gordon Brown's tax and over-spend policies, maybe the most fertile political ground for the LibDems to stake out is to be liberal on economics rather than social democrat. The centre-right German Free Democrats and the Irish Progressive Democrats have been in government more often than not since the late 80s, despite being small liberal parties. Something to think about as we contemplate a hung parliament...
It consistently tops the Reaganite Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom. Judging by reports Vince Cable would love it here - at an off-the-record* post-budget briefing he gave to clients of pollsters ComRes, he lauded Nigel Lawson's tax reforms and Ronald Reagan's rolling back of big government. Vince was happily quoting Reagan’s dictum that the most chilling thing you can be told is “We're from the government and we are here to help you.”
As George Osborne promises to stick to Gordon Brown's tax and over-spend policies, maybe the most fertile political ground for the LibDems to stake out is to be liberal on economics rather than social democrat. The centre-right German Free Democrats and the Irish Progressive Democrats have been in government more often than not since the late 80s, despite being small liberal parties. Something to think about as we contemplate a hung parliament...
*Guido was not there, so not bound by the off-the-record convention.
UPDATE : Have just discovered that the Hong Kong finance minister has now abolished all taxes on wine and beer. How refreshingly civilised...
They have also introduced Green tax cuts! Financial Secretary John Tsang also announced last month tax incentives for "Greener" vehicles and a concessionary profits tax reduction for capital expenditure on "Greener" machinery and equipment. Corporate taxes were also reduced this year 1% to 16.5%. Pay attention Osborne at the back.
They have also introduced Green tax cuts! Financial Secretary John Tsang also announced last month tax incentives for "Greener" vehicles and a concessionary profits tax reduction for capital expenditure on "Greener" machinery and equipment. Corporate taxes were also reduced this year 1% to 16.5%. Pay attention Osborne at the back.
87 comments:
In todays times
The tax squeeze is compounded by the fact that people do not believe official inflation figures. By 86% to 7%, they say everything they buy, including food, petrol and domestic energy, is rising faster than the government admits.
They are slow thats been said here for ages.Let me guess blinky says "so what"
Brown - fuck off now, even the libdems have seen through your stupidity and deceit
I simply don't understand why Cameron won't have a tax cut policy, or even flat rate. It's been shown time and time again that it works. Not just in HK but in the Baltics as well. And in the 80s and the 90s. And it's been shown time and time again that high tax high spend policies simply don't work, not for the poor not for the rich.
This policy ground is wide open. Someone has to take it. Following Tory spending plans worked for Blair in 1997 doesn't mean that following Brown's will work for Cameron in 2010 or whenever.
You may be contemplating a hung Parliament but the UK public isn't.
It is obvious to everyone who lives in the real world and doesn't get taxfree expenses that the cost of living is going through the roof. Little wonder Ed Balls says "so what" when he and Mrs Balls are being fed and bedded by the Taxpayer at such outrageous levels.
It seems that both the Lib Dems & Nu Lab - and to an alarming degree even the Tories - are wedded to an ethos of promoting uniform mediocrity rather than individual excellence among our people.
High tax/high spend rarely conflates with improvement as previous readers have pointed out. In a society like ours where the right to behave like a scumbag is seemingly venerated above all others it results in chav YooKay - a place where everything looks crap, where the desire to excel is stifled and only those qualified to emigrate (either by education or wealth) are able to escape.
A recipe for degeneration rather than improvement don't you think ?
Enjoy your time in HK Guido. I'm back here after 4 years in blighty and couldn't be happier. THe HK govt. also abolished all alchahol tax in the budget a couple of weeks ago. You can now get excellent quality wine for about 80HKD in the local supermarkets. I don't have to experience the Brown terror as well.
As soon as I got to the UK (Aussie passport) I quickly grew to dislike Brown with a passion. I've never come accross a more unpleasant politician in my life. What type of arsehole would hide the budget from his own party leader. Blair should have sacked him and have done with it. THe only positive thing about the downturning UK economy is that it's showing the "son of the manse" for what an incompatent buffoon he is. PHD in the history of the Scottish Labour Party. Says it all really doesn't it. An expert on narrow secterian affairs and a complete inability to understand complex economic issues.
"It consistently tops the Reaganite Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom."
And where is it Reaganite Heritage Foundation's Index of Political Freedom - but I don't suppose you or them are interested in political freedom providing you have the freedom to exploit others. You'll be telling us that Hong Kong is a democracy next.
Suggest you pop off in Burma on teh way home - I sure that the Generals will be only too pleased to offer you some "economic freedom" in return for a political contribution.
BTW your Friday Caption Contest signified a new low for yourself and the sock puppets
@ tory boys never grow up
So whaddya want - bread on the table or political freedom? What's your priority, then?
Maybe we can all starve as we stand in line outside the polling booth.
Tory Boys / TW,
Oh we can go lower, wait and see, perhaps with pictures of the Watson family eating at the taxpayer's trough.
The worker's beer is watered down by New Labour, in Hong Kong it is tax free.
Who is doing the exploitation? New Labour with higher taxes for low paid workers or the Hong Kong branch of the Chinese Communist party which supports tax cuts on beer?
Guido's kind of communist.
"Something to think about as we contemplate a hung parliament... "
God, if only we really could have a hung parliament - 650 MP's writhing on scaffolds the length of Whitehall.
Speaking of beer how can it be right that I pay more for 1 pint of guiness in a pub than 4 cans from the off license?.
Bloody champagne socialists ruin everything.
let me guess...SO WHAT!.ohh blinky that will be your obituary you are truly screwed.
Here lies the career of blinky balls
Like all high flyers he finally falls.
In the kitchen it got too hot.
SO FUCKIN WHAT!
Don`t worry once this lot have finished shitting down your throat they will be of to brussles and theres nothing you can do - other than telling brussles where to shove it! - highly recomended.
Hung Parliament?
Are you pissed? Maybe six months ago, but now....
hope you have a nice time!
Unsworth
So whaddya want - bread on the table or political freedom?
Both - but I suggest you forward your slogan to the your masters for consideration - sur eto be a vote winner.
GuF
I'm not TW - or if I am I broke off from the Budget speech to comment on Dizzy's blog. Perhaps you should pay some of our taxes before you comment on how they are spent. I'll thing you'll find that taxes were pretty low under Stalin as well.
As Nye said "worse than vermin"
Something to think about as
we contemplate a hung parliament...
I Guess The Sunday Times Poll hasn't made it to Hong Kong then.
Support for Labour hits 25-year low
@ Tory Boys Never Grow Up.
The Michael Todd post may have been a 'new low' but it reached 254mainly supportive and often pertinent comments.
But back to this topic; being wealthier than another has ALWAYS been about being in a position to exploit his disadvantages (high-powered socialists act on this mechanism all the time but rarely admit it). What we elect governments to do is to secure for us the best possible advantages in a cruel world.
We most definitely do NOT elect politicians to become Enviro Super Heroes or turn out welfare and health service into a World club to 'even out' iniquities between nations - this happening at the very time when MPs have never been so acquisitive.
Firstly you defend a man (Michael Todd) who dragged his wife's honour through the mud and now I infer from what you've said that high taxation is somehow good for us because it equates to 'political freedom.'
Only you will know truly whether your indignance shown here is fake or not.
Guido's kind of communist.
Was that before or after they murdered 80 Tibetans earlier today?
Never had any doubt that you were capable of going lower - but surely we must be near bottom now!
Electro Kevin
I didn't defend or attack Michael Todd.
I didn't defend or attack high/low taxation - I defended political freedom. The Chinese and Tibetans haven't had the chance to elect anyone - and I'm not going to start supporting their government because they have low (or even high) taxes.
Uncanny similarity between Tom Watson and the unhelpful bank manager in the Nationwide ads:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YX-iUFXZHAA
Tory boys: "I'm not going to start supporting their government because they have low (or even high) taxes"
I'd have thought they're shitting it now.
I think that you may find the major differences are between the sizes of our respective governments their civil servants and the overall cost of supporting the whole bureaucratic fiasco at both national and local levels. This is why our MPs are so staunchly in favour of Europe where endless possibilities are available to those who consider endless meetings on inane subject’s pure nirvana.
sitondafence said...
I think that you may find the major differences are between the sizes of our respective governments their civil servants and the overall cost of supporting the whole bureaucratic fiasco at both national and local levels. This is why our MPs are so staunchly in favour of Europe where endless possibilities are available to those who consider endless meetings on inane subject’s pure nirvana.
11:54 AM, March 16, 2008
Not quite SOTF they dont bother to turn up to our parliment to debate let alone any other, the nirvana is the CASH and the unacountability. just nod and rubber stanp our civil liberties away is the name of the game.
Gordon weiredo Brown less popular than Micheal Foot how good is that eh? one a lefty intellectual(an oxymoron ed) in a donkey jacket the other a pig in a suit neither of them electable.
TV review
MORE 4 11pm: FATHER TED
episode 12 The Budget
Father Ted Crilly {played by Alistair Darling }gets into trouble over his finances.
The soft spoken unlucky priest gets into more mischief of his own making when the ugly Mrs Doyle [played by Yvette Cooper] discovers that there is no food in the parochial house.
She “goes on , goes on , goes on” but is ultimately of little help.
Father Dougal McGuire {Ed Balls} goes to get the parish funds only to find the biscuit barrel is empty.{ 'Ahh So what Ted?' }
paving the way for another hilarious episode with tragic consequences for all the residents of Craggy
Island.
“The money was just resting in the Treasury account before being moved on.”
The plot may be a familiar farce but Ed Balls plays the bumbling idiot role so well, managing to appear naïve, immature,and inexperienced all at once.
He appears perfectly to fit the role of someone so utterly unworldly that you know they will need help distinguishing dreams from reality.
In fact there is an excellent scene when Bishop Brennan {Geoff Hoon}asks him what he believes in and Dougal says ‘Well Len, I believe one-day I will be Pope.’
The look of utter incredulity on Brennan’s face is priceless.
The disgusting, repulsive Father Jack Hackett[superbly played by a dribbling Gordon Brown]dominates proceedings with his usual stock phrases of
“Tax Drink, Tax Feck, Tax Girls.” and ‘ Feck my Arse’.
The long suffering Father Ted discovers from John and
Mary O'Leary { Ed and David Miliband }that it was Father Jack who had taken and spent all the Parish Cash over the previous TEN years.
When Bishop Brennan “That Gobshite” confronts Jack he denies it all and blames it on the long suffering, hapless silver haired Father Ted.
With such low taxes how does the Hong Kong government manage to pay for its race relations advisers, disability rights enforcement operatives, sexuality anti-discrimination facilitators, multi-agency empowerment coordinators and so on and so on? Can these unfortunate, backward people possibly be soldiering on without them?
tory boys never grow up:
'Never had any doubt that you were capable of going lower - but surely we must be near bottom now!'
Listen, I have come on here to be educated not to listen to your shit! I have no doubt you can go lower, all the way down on Lord Gary of Elsby the right dishonourable member of Stoke. Surely you must be near his bottom now. Please disappear up it, thank you and good day to you sir!
Oh NO! Another gallant MP has been Quyangoed.
Poor Bill, or may I have the honouyr or calling you William.....
tory boys never grow up said...
Well, hang on... exactly what DID TBN say?
It's the elephant in the corner of TBN's argument that raises concerns in those of us that think.
TBN's elephant seems to imply that TBN believes that you can have economic freedom or political freedom, but not both. (WHY?)
So -for example- in Hong Kong they could have the tax on cheese lifted, because they are a Communist state with no political freedom.
But in the UK we cannot have tax free cheese because as we are a democracy, lifting the tax on cheese would destroy our political freedoms.
Thatsnews has a point. But TBN has said he will not support the Chinese government. What, then, does he do with the multitude of Chinese-made products which adorn his house?
Tory Boys Never Grow Up 11.15,
You appeared to get rather stompy and called us 'sock puppets' regarding Michael Todd - that sounds pretty defensive to me.
As it happens (being an ex cop) I can't believe that a real 'copper's copper' would have been seen dead (no pun intended) entertaining Gordon Brown as Todd was in that photo. A 'new low' ? I don't think so. A picture speaks more than a thousand words and it was worth publishing if only to enlighten us to what passes among the police rank & file as a 'copper's copper' nowadays.
As for the Chinese/Tibetans never having the chance to elect anyone ...
... I know how it feels.
If we're going to be railroaded into what is, effectively, a single-party dictatorship with nothing to discern between major politicians then at least give us cheap beer to dull the pain.
@ tory boys never grow up
If you have an opinion or a comment then just voice it. All you spout is waffle and frivolous badinage.
Are you a troll or are you merely a boring elsbyesque twat?
For Fooks sake Dave seize the opportunity and say you will start to cut taxes as soon as you can, NOT after 5 fucking years at the earliest. The prize is yours for the taking, PLEASE DO NOT BLOW it. If Osborne isn't up to the job sack him now while it is NOT TOO LATE.
Six out of 10 back the Tory argument that making the public sector more efficient will create room for lowering the tax burden and almost eight out of 10 – 78% – say the government is not doing enough to cut the amount of taxpayers’ money it wastes.
Is Alex Salmond having an affair with Nicola Sturgeon?
Have you ever noticed the body language between these two people and the similar way that they speak and deliver things?
Pity then that Vince is so skitso on economic policy
even the Queen is now pissed off with Brown - the one eyed snot picking fucker can't do anything right.
abolished alchohol taxes, eh Guido?
my my - what a wonderful way to stimulate an economy during a global downturn. i'm sure HK is well prepared to weather the storm - unlike here.
"thatsnews"
TBN's elephant seems to imply that TBN believes that you can have economic freedom or political freedom, but not both. (WHY?)
No elephants anywhere - my response to unsworth made it clear I want both - in fact I believe the two are inseparable.
If you want a sensible debate on the nature of freedom could I suggest that this is not the place.
TBN: "I believe the two are inseparable". Well that's patently not the case with China and her maasive trade surplus and sovereign wealth funds that you almost inevitably support. Maybe you meant "I wish the two were inseparable".
The thing about the elephant in the corner is that the polite thing is to ignore them.
Mr Brown was seen rawking his nostril out in the House of Commons on TV. And then wiping his fingers on his tie, after apparently nibbling on the resultant tasty morsel of nasal discharge that he found in his nostril.
Where is the elephant here? The fact that, although nobody wants to admit it, it indicates that Mr Brown has not got what it takes to be the Prime Minister.
Lack of self-awareness. (Would any sane person dig for mucus at work before hundreds of colleagues let alone the nation on live TV?)
Not house trained. (The public rawking of nostril should have been removed from his behaviour as a child)
But as Blinky Balls would say: "So what?"
Enough of debates over taxation. I turned to this blog as I hoped Guido was going to tell us the names of the three British MPs and the ex-Cabinet Member who, according to the NoW, were all clients of the Emperors Club, the exclusive vice agency used by Eliot Spitzer
Quido
I don't disagree with anything you say. However please remember Cameron is trying to get elected.
He can not possibly achieve this while the countries government is all but bankrupt, and more importantly 35% or so of the countries workers are currently employed by the state. While actually saying he will cut public expenditure. He certainly is in no position to borrow money to fund tax cuts. Like the Irish and American governments happily for them, where.
Cameron is not stupid and neither has Gordon Brown been from his own parties prospective. It has sustained Brown in limos and very happy to please boyfriends, for the last 11 years.
Cameron is doing the only thing he can possibly do. That is reassuring the public sector that half a million of them will not find themselves on the dole cue after only 6 months.
However as we should all know by now. What oppositions say or indicate and what they often do in reality, have very often little relationship to each other. Especially in the long run.
You and me may not like it. In fact I hate it more then just about anyone can. But it is just the practical position Cameron finds himself.
After all do you really think a public school boy Conservative establishment tof has suddenly gone commy on us all?
Because as we all know to our costs. The last two public school boy socialist tofs that have been running the show for the last 11 years. Did not turn out to have gone all conservative on us, did they?
Cameron is as much an establishment old school Tory as any other Conservative, with the only exception of Thatcher, with just 21st century knobs on. Nothing he has ever said or done has ever made me believe differently.
As for Ireland good for them. However they have not just had 11 years of the most dangerously overspending and wasteful government running their country, known to mankind. Not since the last Labour one 1974-79 anyway.
Atlas shrugged
Also Quido
I have been to Hong Kong several times the last time only two years ago. the time before 6 months before the hand over.
I can confirm all that you say. however Hong Kong started from a position of stability run by the largest amount of British common sense on the planet. With also the largest and the cheapest most docile workforce in the world on its doorstep. Along with the hardest working most highly motivated people living inside it.
In short nothing like this country, especially now, whatsoever. However much of a wonderful guide to relative prosperity and freedom of the individual it may still be.
Certainly a fine example of how good life could be for ordinary people, even living on a small rock, living together in peace and harmony. In spite of living like sardines in an undersized tin can.
Without that is; deliberately divisive, pathetically ideological, creatively repressive, university based brainwashing, British establishment BBC promoted, nastily inhuman, socialist bullshit.
The place is literally alive with small business coming at you from every doorway or available space. Of which there seems to be an almost infinite amount. In spite of the tiny size of the place.
Small business being numerous and prosperous is indeed the lifeblood of liberty and generally one of the only things that makes live worth living, FOR EVERYONE. IMO
Atlas shrugged
Tom Watson is nothing but a fat sleazy ring licking cunt anyways, and everyone hates him. He has always only ever been a sycophant and used as such.
Who does anyone give a fuck about him? Apart from the obvious of course.
BTW Watson you fat cunt, GF has all the details of who visits, so if you use the same server at all he will know regardless of what name you use.
Twat.
Oh dear gordons gonna make redundant 2000 Nr employees if the Eu lets him wonder how much that will cost us.A couple os mill maybe..SO WHAT! thanks ed this is a phrase that just keeps giving I hope people shout it at you in the street(if you ever go out with your beard).
Dear Mr TBNL
Best watch out. You'll be getting a visit from Jack Torture Straw and one of Commissioner Bendover's Community Pacification Units.
We don't criticise the chink dictatorship here; Jack doesn't allow it, just part of his 'sixties libertarian character. Don't get him wrong, Jack is minded - as he so grandly puts it in his uniquely Himmlerian way - to let you march and demonstrate, but only about approved issues and the barbarian tyranny of China's Maoist neo-cons isn't one of them.
Jack's, if you're buying, and you are, is a portion of Guantanamo waterboard chestnuts on a bed of Condaleeza Rice.
Mr thatsnews at 2.04.
You're right. The snot-eating is just like the illegal occupation of Iraq - if they get away with that they think they can get away with anything. And, so far, they are.
That the British people permitted Nancy that disgusting infantile behaviour and did not immediately riot shows how apathetic we have become.
How is it that we have, as prime minister, a man who picks his nose and eats it in front of a global audience? What sort of a shithole have we become that the entire establishment colludes in Brown's disgusting personal habits, his gay coquettishness, his tantrums, his tractor production statistics, his fantasy inflation figures, his lunatic visions and values, his repressive police state initiatives -Ihr papieren, bitte - his swiftly forgotten money-laundering, his misuse of public funds, his cynical distortion of charity commission rules, his attempted Scottish election rigging, his rank cohort of arse-licking, blackmailing, jumped-up, personal and political misfits - the worthless cunt Ainsworth, the smirking marionette Blears, the witch Flint, the vile, nonce-loving harridan, Hodge, the Ballses, the nasty, inbred, malformed Millipedes, the torturer, Straw. Jesus fucking wept, a retinue of idle, thieving, lying, warmongering, shrivelled-up, hatchet-faced faghags and cheesy, cufflinked cocksuckers, cheerled by contemptible pricks like the thug Salter and the oily, thieving, self-important bastard Vaz and - cocksuckers' cocksucker - Stephen gissajob Pound.
Toilets Maguire and the rest of the filthy racist scum in the press debate as though 'twere holy writ this criminal lunatic's entirely self-interested promotion of a spurious Britishness. Fearful of a West Lothian Question-inspired public revolt over his illegitimate seat at Westminster, his premiership and his unaccountability to his own Fife electorate, Nancy would strangle us all with the Union Jack if it meant that for even one more day he could bully and cheat and posture and steal and lie, his crimes orchestrated by his dead lunatic father up in presbyterian heaven.
Lonely, spiteful, blackmailed, paranoid, nail-biting, fucked-up old queen, Nightmare Nancy, signing the Lisbon Treaty, all on his own; alone, that is, aside from the entire world watching, utterly bewildered. Just like during his endlessly, globally re-posted and You-tubed, parliamentary, shot-eating tour de force.
Ladeezangennulmen, never mind elephants in the corner, I give you the prime minister of the United Kingdom. You won't believe your fucking eyes.
Come out Gordon. Up against the wall, snot-eating motherfucker.
A few weeks ago I put forward and argument that when Brand cameron is in trouble YouGov and ComRes pollsters always seem to come to his rescue.
This week’s polls are no different.
Cambo has had another bad week. Spring conference has had little or no publicity, so the Tories start a spat with the BBC. No one was interested in the conference.
Darling delivered a dull budget, but the increases in tax on booze was universally welcomed, as was more cash for the young and old. So it wasn’t that bad a budget. The Tories are in disarray….quick get a good poll out to steady the nerves of the Tory troops.
Sorry, but the next election is over 2 years away.
Darling delivered a dull budget, but the increases in tax on booze was universally welcomed, as was more cash for the young and old.
Talk bollocks why don't you? Bloody hell, I didn't realise Zanulab astroturfers worked Sundays. Now kindly fuck off and die you rancid cunt.
Tory boy,
we don't have economic liberty (as we have to perform forced labour until june, in the form of taxes, oh and don't forget the gvt's 'right' to confiscate property) and we don't have political liberty (as I can't protest outside parliament, vote on issues that concern me (eg. Iraq, EU etc.)
Also, you must be aware of SOCA, CCTV, bugging, extraordinary rendition, secret US-UK jails e.g. Abu Gharab, ID cards, ASBOs, 28 day pre-charge detention, anti-terror leglistlation, civil contigencies act (05), on the spot fines, power to crush cars, power to sieze property and so on. Doesn't just apply to jakie skum or pakis either, remember the Natwest 3? White & middle class extrodited on suposed anti terror leglistlation.
Just because I can say 'fuck the government' doesn't really equate to freedom, that's freedom of speech - which i still can't fully exercise (e.g. lyrical terrorist)
we can have debate about freedom & liberty, only you seem to assume that we are free in the UK. we are free if we keep our heads down; quite like those in HK eh?
Dear Stanislav,
Fine as ever. One thing: please can you (or someone) refresh my memory on Nancy's "attempted Scottish election rigging"?
While I am aware of the governing party's expertise in the area of postal-voting, I don't know about this particular piece of gossip/alleged malpractice in Scotchland.
With love.
Shit-Bag
Here's something you might not know about YouGov. Clients set the questions.
If a mysterious client a Mrs Gudrun Not-Brown of Little Nostrils, Poke Noses, Snottshire, pays YouGov ££££ to ask the question: "Is David Cameron a baby eating fiend?" YouGov will ask the question.
Of course, they might gussy it up a bit, to make it look legit, but it is perfectly possible to set up multiple accounts to fool the YouGov system. (multiple email addresses such as Mrs Broon, Mrs Brown, Mrs Browne, Mr Brown, Mr Brown-noser, etc.) So someone could set a question and then get cronies to answer it in the way they want it answered.
Also, for some reason although YouGov promised to pay people who took part in their polls, somehow this does not happen in many cases. And complaints are ignored.
Possibly because YouGov only want people who answer questions in the way YouGov wants them answered, so does not send questions to people who are not in favour. Thus removing the opportunity to answer any more questions.
And don't try to find anything negative about YouGov on Google. I think some clever Barsteward has used SEO techniques to bloat search engines with spurious feel good messages about YouGov.
Anonymous [4.39]
"Darling delivered a dull budget, but the increases in tax on booze was universally welcomed...". Huh? - which Universe?? Anyway, I hate to deflate your little NuLab fantasy, but the Polls you refer to are independent, not dreamed-up by the Tory Press Office in a moment of desperation. Back to LaboutHome with you...
Guido,
You may like to blog on more evidence of Brown spin. I think we all recall he said he wouldn't do it (unlike Blair, hint hint).
Well remember when he said this in his conference speech.
"And when the terrorists tried to attack Scotland’s biggest airport, they were answered by the courage of the police and firefighters and a baggage handler named John Smeaton. He came to the aid of a policeman under assault from one of the terrorists."
"Later John told me it was instinctive, he was doing what was right."
"That man, that hero John Smeaton is here with us today and on behalf of our country – John, we thank you."
And also said this.
"This is a very brave man and a very courageous man and I think the whole country owes John a debt of gratitude."
"He is a hero and we are proud of him."
Well it appears Gordon Brown has been using the guy who's role was not one of the main heroes of that day. Just the media hyped one.
Read here.
guidos alive !!
worried for a while old boy !
wheres gordon then ? looked in the cupboard , looked round the rocking horse . It appears somthing has gone horibly wrong , as though his wonk scheme has been rumbled .
i have come across a book called "toilets in history" if mcguires been booted out then he make like to give a read.
cameron offered a bit of fresh thinking , hague had them rolling about the isles and boris showed he might well liberate london .
but brown no where to be seen , no vision , no facing the your a incompetant fool press questions .
if he wants to go another two years i suggest every one listen to evanominics R4 programm called interetingly "the bottom line" , it was the most useless thing ive hear in a while , useual nu labour construct of , no problems really, were just getting on with it , and the success of getting a quango friend to use third way PR . to present to the public a fake snap shot of whats happening .
if you can have a listen to it , and then think back to where you last heard it.
i wonder at what point of natioanl disgrace is sufficient for brown and co to call the election, not to worry , just sit back and watch the labour party lose a bit everyday , until they become worthless and pointless .
remember gordon who told you "you should not decieve the people" all those years ago before you enabled this monstrous plan , your finishing labour from now on .
@ Stanislav (4.17pm):
Yet again great work, mate. Your little rants are part of this blog's crown jewels.
Please keep it up! Btw- it's good to see how much your English has improved in the last few months!
@ Mill (5.06pm):
Also on the ball, mate! Like you I don't like taking lectures about political freedoms from somebody who is so obviously a ZaNuLab troll.
Our economic and political freedoms are being undermined by the present 'government'. The trouble is that I have VERY little faith in the Cameroon Conservatives to really do what's needed.
I wonder if I can emigrate to Hong Kong?
Dear Mr Shit Bag
Suggest you google Scotish election rigging.
If it looks and smells like a haggis, tosses a caber like a haggis, then it is a vote for Labour.
Kinnochio had his finger in the till. btw
yours sincerely
Nessie, Loch Ness
Careful, anon 5:36!
If it is in the Daily Express you can be sure of the following facts:
1) The story is probably not true.
2) If there was any truth in it, the staff there (they do not use professional journalists) will have surgically removed it and replaced it with an equal weight of shit.
It is Monday (early hours of) in Hong Kong.
Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh! Guido.
hi guido, hope you had a flu jab :)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aAUdWwR6Aq_I&refer=home
Earth to Guido. Is this the same Vince Cable who until recently wanted higher taxes, including a 50% income tax band, and who led the calls to waste billions of public money on nationalising a failed bank? The current veneration of this old poseur is one of the mysteries of the age.
Dear Mr Shit Bag
Two answers to your question. The first is that Douglas The Corrupt Zombie Alexander of that ilk was in charge and for most people that would be enough.
The second is that Scotch devolution, as you know, was initiated to short-circuit the Nationalist agenda and ensure continued Labour hegemony over the border; as a sop to the Toileteers, also strong in the Highlands and Islands, a proportional representation component - the list system - was incorporated into elections for Holyrood and this saw the election of a handful of cocaine-and-bondage socialists like Orange Tommy Sheridan, a clutch of unspeakably sanctimonious Greens and even a senior citizens' party MSP as well as a Labour-dominated coalition with the Toiletmen; the desired result being an eternity of LibLabbery.
The first First Minister, the skinflint cuckolded by his Grace the Lord Derry Irvine of Legover & Cherie Booth, Donald Da-da-da-Dewar, died in harness and was replaced by Thieving Henry McLeish, a Labour stickyfingerite, streets ahead of his London co-accused in creative use of constituency expenses; the whole Scotch political-legal establishment being crooked, McLeish was, even though, of course, he had done nothing wrong was allowed to retire in his forties on a pension of about a grand a week for life, bless, after less than two years employment.
McLeish was replaced by the incomparably, embarrassingly stupid Jack McConnell who distinguished his accession by dragging his ghastly wife along to his first press conference and announcing that, yes, he had committed adultery but it was a long time ago and that the grimacing crone beside him had forgiven him and so should the nation. In an assembly resplendent with over-promoted gabshites, McConnell took the oatcake, praising the invasion of Iraq, crowing about the illegal detention of asylum seeking infants, joyful at rendition and illegal arms flights through Scotch airports to Israel; complicit, instrumental with Wallace in the Shirley McKie scandal, McConnell is in a class of his own for cack-handed stupidity, conceit and arrogance; in the whole of British politics there has never been anyone of such limited ability, so unsuited for responsibility as Jack McConnell. Westminster knew that with McConnell fronting things even generationally brain dead LabourJocks would not vote Labour this time. Enter Dougie and election-winning supremo, his Grace the Lord Kinnock.
Against all advice Alexander decided to run both the Holyrood and the local government elections on the same day, using similar forms for entirely different voting systems. Fifty thousand people, furthermore, 50,000, entitled to a postal ballot did not receive their papers. Even among those who were allowed by Alexander to vote, in the weeks approaching the election the Scottish Office broadcast adverts explaining the complicated voting forms which offered voters multiple choices in two elections; the forms used in the elections, however, bore no resemblance to those trailed and perfectly understandable confusion reigned. Kinnock, for a fee of forty thousand a year from its manufacturers, had persuaded the Scottish Office - Dougie - to use an electronic counting machine in the election. It was a fuck up and at least a hundred thousand votes were mechanically disallowed along the lines of the 2000 Florida hanging chads debacle. Proportionally the Scottish fuck up is the same as a million and a half UK voters being disallowed either by denial of the papers or by Kinnock-prompted electronic failure. That all this chicanery and incompetence back-fired on the talentless Alexander family is beside the point.
Even BBC Scotland, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NewLabour, called the election a scandal. Cowardly as ever, those elected by this bizarre methodology refused a re-run, lest they lose their own seats, salaries, expenses, allowances, pensions, boyfriends, girlfriends, newspaper columns, tv appearances, peerages and the rest. The "election" of the minority administration of Lavender Alex Salmond would disgrace a militarised banana republic.
An enquiry was held and, as usual, found that everyone was to blame, therefore no-one was to blame. Alexander true to his family ethos, interpreted this as clearing his name and remains a cabinet minister. Kinnock smirks his way through one media opportunity after another; shameless, money-grubbing, cowardly gabshite, elder statesman of greed, graft and incompetence.
For stepping down quietly in favour of Sister Wendy Alexander, Lord Jack McConnell was rewarded with some invented sinecure in Malawi; yes, Malawi. Whether Lady Alexander will accompany him as he imparts his wisdom to the Savage is not known.
A matter upon which we may bet our collective arse, though, is that if Brown and his trained Zombies can engineer an opportunity to similarly refine the next UK general election, they will.
Hope this whets your appetite.
As our friend above says just Google scottish election rigging, have a look at Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers (SACL) or below :
electionhttp://www.scotsindependent.org/2007/070629/index_p.htm
love from stanislav
stanislavplumbcheap4u
good clean job and no fucking about with Mrs
discount4cash
Bill Quango - how dare you suggest I am Geoff Hoon!!!
Personally, if you want low taxes and a more Libertarian approach, there's only one party to vote for - the UK Libertarian Party.
And Tory Boys..., I pay UK tax and it is way too high, and achieves nothing. Look how crap the NHS, education system, etc. are.
One story I heard today - a Lewisham primary school has cancelled its annual school musical because a 10 year old boy, training to be an Imam, has complained that boys and girls must not dance together! You couldn't make it up - and this is where the band of gobshites that run this country has taken us...
I'm lucky in that at least I have the right to live in the US. God help the rest of you...
Guido.Please read "Inside Blair's brain" Sunday Times Review 16 March.In Lord Owen'sopinion,as a medical man, Blair was mentally ill when he took us into Iraq.This surely needs much wider coverage than an article in a Sunday supplement.Blair also apparently lied about his physical condition.This is so serious that it should be headline news- should our troops be in Iraq at the whim of a lunatic? I trust you will give this your usual efficient attention - and hopefully Cameron will pick it up.As Brown was also closely involved, perhaps we shall shortly see men in white coats arriving at No.10.Not before time.
What the fuck's happened to the last episode of the Last Enemy?
Brown get it pulled did he?
Anonymous said...
@ Stanislav (4.17pm):
Yet again great work, mate. Your little rants are part of this blog's crown jewels.
Please keep it up! Btw- it's good to see how much your English has improved in the last few months!
Your infantile fawning sounds quite patronizing.
Re anon at 8.15 pm
Dr Death entered parliament 42 years ago, a mere 4 years after qualifying so the Times reference to him as a neurology specialist is somewhat of an exaggeration.
Blair's messianic self- belief and capacity for self- delusion should have been evident to anyone of fairly average perception - no need for a psychiatrist.
What sort of a shithole have we become that the entire establishment colludes in Brown's disgusting personal habits, his gay coquettishness, his tantrums, his tractor production statistics, his fantasy inflation figures, his lunatic visions and values, his repressive police state initiatives -Ihr papieren, bitte - his swiftly forgotten money-laundering, his misuse of public funds, his cynical distortion of charity commission rules, his attempted Scottish election rigging, his rank cohort of arse-licking, blackmailing, jumped-up, personal and political misfits - the worthless cunt Ainsworth, the smirking marionette Blears, the witch Flint, the vile, nonce-loving harridan, Hodge, the Ballses, the nasty, inbred, malformed Millipedes, the torturer, Straw. Jesus fucking wept, a retinue of idle, thieving, lying, warmongering, shrivelled-up, hatchet-faced faghags and cheesy, cufflinked cocksuckers, cheerled by contemptible pricks like the thug Salter and the oily, thieving, self-important bastard Vaz and - cocksuckers' cocksucker - Stephen gissajob Pound.
Sorry, I just had to see it again. Great poetry always bears a second reading.
Aha...thanks for that, Mr Stanislav.
Maybe Dougie, Broon and his assorted mafiosi were taking a leaf out of the Thatcher Poll Tax book by piloting their election-rigging scheme in Scotchland. Should we stand by for electoral fraud on a massive scale at the next general election? I would not put such an event past that deceitful freak in Number Ten.
One can almost feel sorry for the Scotch: Broon, Salmond, McConnell, Alexander (x2), Steel, Sheridan, Wark...a shower of pure Scottish shit. If only there were a real-life Rebus to nail them.
I saw scrawled on the back of a filthy lorry the other day 'cleaned by the NHS'
Even vandals know NHS hospitals to be the filthy germ ridden shitholes that they are.
If Brown's polling badly today, imagine how bad it will be in a years time, when the shit will have really hit the fan. (starting this week) He could achieve histroy and take labour back to being the third party in a two party state.
Economic melt down here we come, god help us all!!
Gordo's breakdown here we come!! (pass me another tin of cheap cider, and a Lambert & Butler.
The Chinese have a curse 'may you live in interesting times'
Well it is going to get very interesting in the next year or two
I suggest reading the article by Dr David Owen. As he trained in psychiatry and neurology, anon, he is clearly much better placed than you or I to comment on someone he met and spoke with, many times.
I thought, as a layman, that Blair had gone somewhat loopy. Nice to see the mechanism of how this could happen explained by an expert.
Serious question here. I've just been round to a neighbour whose dog had puppies a couple of weeks ago. Five of them, endearing little things.
The mother watches over them, knows exactly what they want, nudges them back if they're likely to fall off a chair, nibbles their fleas, is always ready for them at mealtime... and this is her first litter.
She's had no parenthood classes, no health visitor, no sex education lessons from the Department of Children, Schools and Families, and has never seen Ed Balls. As far as I know, she has not received a Giro cheque.
And yet she has a brain the size of a walnut.
Comments, please.
I suggest reading the article by Dr David Owen.
I don't. The man's a cunt and has a bad case of reverse midas touch i.e. everything he's even so much as looked at has turned to shit. In any event one doesn't need to be a trick cyclist, or any other kind of head doctor, to know that Blair was plainly off his trolley.
Fuck off fawner said...
"Your infantile fawning sounds quite patronizing"
You are clearly in the wrong place, having missed your turning from the shithole from which you came.
Mr anonymous @ 4.17 spoke for a good many of us who not only enjoy the sublime rantings by stanislav, but look forward to them keenly, and are delighted that he chooses this forum to vent them. They are an inspiration to those of us of lesser linguistic abilities, and there is none lower than yours, you cunt.
I suggest you fuck back off to the arsehole you crawled out of, and see if you can't get a relaunch in some other direction - you are not needed here.
If you doubt me, see bogeyman above you cretinous turd.
Hong Kong also has land value tax. Excluding, Monaco and othe havens, they have the best tax system in the world.
i have always wondered how wise it is too tax fuel,
i would have thought that this would drive inflation and ultimately make us less competative and poorer.
sure it brings in fast cash but it damages the county finances in general over the long term.
and helps to lead to our jobs going overseas, where costs are lower, with cheaper fuel being one of them.
45, it was the "Btw- it's good to see how much your English has improved in the last few months!" that caused me to take exception.
As you mentioned, and we all know, there are few here that can match Stanislav linguistically.. in English or otherwise.
Meanwhile, fucking off now as you suggested.
Dear Mr bogeyman
The Sharon Matthews affair is a dreadful tableau; poverty, wretchedness, overcrowding, misery. Un-fucking-watchable.Gut-wrenching, heartbreaking and awful. Mediaeval.
This is NewLabour's achievement. John Prescott is filthy rich, his natural constituency filthy poor.
Guido if you get a chance go to the public housing estates in Kwun Tong or Tuen Mun.
There you will see the Hong Kong economic miracle or rather you wont. People are leaping out of 30 storey windows every week as they cannot live they lost their jobs to mainland Chinese workers they cannot afford to live and look after theri kids and are killing themselves. I know Guido I lived in Hong Kong for 20 years lovely in Central and Tsim Sha Tsui but go to the real Hong Kong pal
nice one stan
still cant get over kinnochios vote counting machines mmm thats two for me and one for you etc .
laugh so much, drain need clean!!
waiting for millibatias great speech on how much china is helping the people of tibet, or gordons explanation of why charity ap tibet has had its funding hit by the EU.
milburns done dog piss on browns lamp post hoping to splash a bit on camerons rise .
SO WHAT , echos on and on , nice one blinky , every bit deserved .
2000 nr employess to get there final pay packet , SO WHAT . meantime only one paper running on NR savings rates that are so good that other banks are complaining , is the tax payer funding the restructure then??
meanwhile budget mysteryies deepen , what is on or off balance sheet , how much out is PSBR. fiddled inflation figs , there is nothing in the shopping basket that has come down ?? so how come only 4% , breads gone up 30%.
and to top it all her maj now tells us that lord goldsmith did not even consult before issuing oath of aligence , apart from the sort of treachery nature of it, just how thick can you get. its not just the aspects of a dictatorship from gordon , but its more the stupidity of it. its like pissed vengence in a night club for wearing nice shoes.
should have given us that referendum , fuckin about with peoples basic rights, for a wonk ideology, whilst you vist the fake palaces of strasbourg .
double speak = double tax burden + damaged society .
input that into your peoples spin machine processor
4.17pm
"Come out Gordon. Up against the wall, snot-eating motherfucker."
Got to disagree with you here Stanislav, my old mucker. You are completely underestimating the hidden benefits of the vulgar virtuoso's cavity scraping cadenza. Shame on you man. I mean, do you not realize how many young children have now taken an active interest in Westminster politics as a result of repeatedly viewing and re-viewing this compulsively catchy snot-pop video? Truly, truly, Brown's unnatural ability to connect with the kiddies is nothing short of remarkable and probably marks the most outstanding achievement of any New Labour minister since 1997.
11:11 PM
Clearly, we should pour billions of pounds into a revolutionary NHS stem cell research program aimed at the biological enhancement of all British citizens - who would ideally acquire the instinctive ability to grow two extra legs, defecate all over the pavement and lick their own genitalia in front of the whole family.
Welcome to Hong Kong, Guido. As you mentioned, a top tax rate of 16%. However due to the rather large surplus (~HK$100bn) that has been up there's going to be a rebate. Doubles all round!
Not forgetting that it's likely that the top tax rate will be cut - yes, a tax cut - to 15% next year. Make mine a treble! (Although alcohol in the ex-pat areas is still expensive)
In terms of economic freedom, Hong Kong typically comes in the top of free economies of the world. There is though a price to be paid, air quality is not good, historical buildings etc. get knocked down with scant regard in the name of progress.
However, the trains do run on time and they certainly know how to put together a decent public transport infrastructure. Having moved here last year, I've no regrets. Except the Guinness tends to be pretty crap. HK 7s in a couple of weeks, so who cares!
Slainte
Boges, 11:11pm
"And yet she has a brain the size of a walnut."
Agree with the rest, but I think you'll find Shannon's chav-emissions receptacle of a mummy fits that final sentence perfectly.
Hi Guido
You should catch up with freemarket Kiwi blogger Cactus Kate while you are over there.
Cactus will tell you all about hong Kong, including its deicious taxcutting government, as well as the evils of socialism, including our own awful Labour government in New Zealand.
A few vodkas and you'll be fine.
I stand by my estimation that Vince Cable would make the best Chancellor - if only he could ditch the Libs and that moron Clegg, to whom a join the dots puzzle would be an impossible conundrum. Vince has brains and experience as an economist and his intelligence must tell him that social economies with high taxation are doomed in the era of globalisation. Even the fucking Swedes are beginning to cut taxes!! As for Sweden's so-called economic miracle, much touted by the the right-on brigade, as the Norwegians say, "What do you say to a Swede in Oslo?", "I'd like fries with my burger". I sense the political mood in the country has swung again in favour of a smaller state and low taxation. Until recently everyone who could remember the 98% tax rate and how crap the economy was in the 60's and 70's were ignored, in favour of a vain hope that a large state would somehow create a "fairer" society. It never has and it never will. One example - a study a few years ago looked into the net impact in terms of jobs of the massive amount of government redirection of tax receipts away from London and the South East and into the North of England under regional development policy. It found that over 30 years of continuous flow of hundreds of billions of pounds from South to North, from 1971 to 2001, only a net 10,000 extra jobs had been created in the North. The corresponding figure for the South was 2.1 million extra jobs! Just think how much more prosperous the economy as a whole would have been if all this money had not been so wasted. Cameron and Osborne had better wake up.
Err.... shouldn't the liberals be liberal already? Why should they even need a second's thought about pursuing liberal policies?