Trump card or will democracy ...

... have its way?

Will Donald Trump be able to subvert the wishes of Scotland's democratically elected administration, will he be able to divert the plans to generate enough electricity to power 68,000 UK households each year; or will he demonstrate to the Scottish people that it doesn't matter who has political power, it is the power that wealth brings that determines how the world spins.

Donald Trump challenge to Aberdeenshire wind farm to begin

Lang Banks says .... "It would be a great pity if Donald Trump was in any way responsible for frustrating Scotland's ambition to generate clean power and green jobs."

I say ... remember the bankers who brought about the most recent economic depression, remember the power companies that treat the little people as milch cows.

Democracy should show Trump the door to Scotland ... but I wonder, how will democracy sit with the lawyers at Scotland's supreme civil court today.

It's almost time ...

... to hand over for good.  The last six months have been busy, to busy to write, busy preparing to hand over the warehouse to J.J., next Friday I cross my particular Rubicon into retirement, a life no longer governed by the clock, the timetable, the rota .... instead there will be ... time !

My early upbringing taught me not to waste time, use every second of it, and starting early my first shot is across the bows of Caerphilly CBC.

The story .... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23801990 ...

... not the involvement of Pickles, but the table at the end of the report entitled "Councils which allow blogging and filming of public meetings"

Caerphilly does not allow democracy into Public meetings, there can be little justice where dissent can be silenced, so to begin a tiny skirmish I sent an email to the leader of the council Harry Andrews, to-wit :

 I read with interest, BBC web, that Caerphilly CBC do not allow blogging or filming of public meetings.

What plans and timescale do CCBC have to extend democracy in the borough by following the example set by both Monmouthshire and Anglesey ?

Kind regards

John.

 It's quite possible that CCBC have plans to democratise our local authority, a grand scheme, but somehow I doubt it, politicians prefer not to share power and influence with the electorate.
.
 

Why do we insult those ...

... people and institutions alien to our various cultures?

The BBC has coverage here.  to the most recent example.

In France the editors of Charlie Hebdo are preparing to cause controversy again with a issue released tomorrow. The cover shows a Muslim man in a wheelchair pushed by an Orthodox Jew with foil cap and under the title "Untouchables 2", an imaginary sequel to a recent French film.

... a user Reviews by OttoVonB of the film "Untouchable" includes the following ...

The film's simplicity is delightfully misleading: the script is a masterpiece of comedy writing, and however good the rest of the cast is, the central duo is magical. Sy's comic timing will have you in stitches, but it is his honesty and vulnerability that make you fall in love with the character. Cluzet isn't your typical sad-sack, instead, much of the finest pleasures in the film consist in watching him use his keen mind to mess with the world around him (a sub-plot about an abstract painting really takes the biscuit, you'll know it when you see it).

This is one of the most unique, beautiful and honest friendships ever committed to film. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry... a delightful celebration of everything in life that makes it worthwhile.

The two characters parodied by Charlie Hebdo are ...

... Sy, a failed robber, going through the motions and playing the stereotypical jobless émigré. Cluzet is a romantic and melancholy mind trapped in a useless body.

 

French foreign ministry's website quotes Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault as saying "freedom of expression is one of [France's] fundamental principles", as are secularism and respect for religious convictions.

 

The statement is not at all honest, the Prime Minister of France cites "freedom of expression", yet the arm of the law in France has what is known as "unapproved rallies", I guess the fundamental principles depend upon who you are and what you wish to protest against.

I must go back to the original question, "why insult those we don't know?"

 

What is the point, except in this case to provoke a particular section of French society!

 

 

Scotland, Salmond and a strategy ...

... that will send the Scots into a brave new world, and not a shot fired.

The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) are the traditional minnow in a large pond, unable to compete in the philosophical battles found in the larger Westminster arena, the only future is to create an illusion in the seemingly larger political pond an independent Scotland would bring.

Reflecting on the strategy towards independence, Salmond and chums have played a blinder .......

The strategy ...

Too few Scots want independence, less than 40%, so ...

Increase the voting population, the young are easily influenced, voting age reduced to 16 for the referendum.

Ignite an underlying conflict ...

Scottish sporting celebrations that will be dominated by the old enemy, the Commonwealth games will precede the referendum, good timing.

Salmond's coup de grâce, the finishing blow ...

An option that cannot be given without UK wide approval ...

... devo-max, fiscal federalism, the UK wide electorate will not underwrite a constitutional change that gives preferential treatment to one part of the Union.

Westminster says "No", the votes go to Salmond, game over ...

Salmond wins, 
       the party begins !

Say hello to our new flag ...

... minus the Scots Saltire ...

Martin Luther King or Royston Jones ...

I have a dream or the language of hate .

First from the Western Mail today ...

SIR – Dennis Coughlin ........

This anti-Welshness also explains why the Welsh Government refuses to run Wales in the interests of the indigenous population ..........

ROYSTON JONES

Tywyn, Gwynedd

... for the whole letter, it's the last in the list.

... second, check out the language of hate, Martin Luther King would recognise the sentiments, would this Royston Jones recognise the Alabama of the 1960's in his vision for Wales.

But for the politicians of Wales an impossible citizen, a citizen who is unable or unwilling to recognise his absurd hatred.

... what exactly is his "indigenous population", how is it characterised, what are the criteria, who would be excluded from our democracy ?

The answer lies somewhere in the dark area's of society, those area's that politics can only imagine might exist !

But for those who believe that "the modern state that is the whole body of a nation expressing its will",  what place for Royston and Co, how does our Assembly satisfy the wants of extremist Wales.

A digression ...

... in the USA reports are coming out that legislation to prevent electoral fraud has disenfranchised a huge swathe of US society, people are unable to register for voting because they do not have unexpired government-issued photo ID's,.

... as many as 11 percent of eligible voters—roughly 21 million Americans—lack current, unexpired government-issued photo IDs.

It only takes a small drop of ink in many parts of the world ...

... to enfranchise its citizens.



Martin Luther King would have recognised this particular anomaly in the democracy held up as an example to the rest of the world.

Might the legislation to prevent electoral fraud have included a mechanism to capture everyone eligible to vote, after all this is what democracy is about.

Dissent, a cornerstone ...

... of democracy, of civilisation, for without dissent in Britain we would have :

1. children chimney sweeps.
2. children mine workers.
3. children as young as 5 working

Our voice of dissent in Britain was Anthony Ashley Cooper, better known as the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.

In Russia today there are the punk band Pussy Riot,and the object of their dissent is nothing more than the vertically challenged President (some say for life) Putin, a man who is unable to contemplate a democratic challenge.

In 16th century Italy there was Galileo Galilei, a dissenter who searched for truth through science, his adversary was the Roman Inquisition. 

Whereas Galileo was persecuted because he had proven the Earth orbited our Sun, the Pussy Riot are being persecuted by the Russian political establishment because they will have no truck with the Putin regime.

What point life if you are unable to protest another man's politics ...........

This weeks FoS award goes to ...

... Paul "Petey" Ryan, running mate of Romney.

... written in The Times by Sam Coates Deputy Political Editor

Mitt Romney’s running mate in his campaign to become the next US President has been sharply critical of the NHS, claiming that free healthcare distorts the democratic process because it makes patients dependent on government help.

Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman who was announced on Saturday as the Republican vice-presidential contender, has also compared the British economy to those of Greece and Ireland, saying the “day of reckoning” has already arrived in all three countries.

The remarks are likely to cause further transatlantic friction after Mr Romney’s troubled visit to Britain last month in which he criticised preparations for the Olympics. 

Mr Ryan’s attack on the NHS was part of an effort to stop President Obama’s healthcare reforms, which the Republican said would put the US "on a glide path toward European-style socialism". He wrote in the Wall Street Journal:  "We need only look to Great Britain and elsewhere to see the effects of socialised healthcare on the broader economy. Once a large number of citizens get their healthcare from the State, it dramatically alters their attachment to government.

"Every time a tax cut is proposed, the guardians of the new medical-welfare state will argue that tax cuts would come at the expense of healthcare — an argument that would resonate with middle-class families entirely dependent on the government for access to doctors and hospitals." The analysis came in 2009, in an article co-written with Peter Wehner, a former adviser to President Bush.

Our NHS is not "European-style socialism", its a recognition that we are all dependent on one another at some point in life.  A recognition that there are aspects of life that require just a little more intervention than the markets.

In the UK, we as a people through the ballot box, have decided that our imperfect NHS, a service that is totally inclusive, is a better civilised solution to health care than the models that Ryan and chums subscribe to.

For the little people, those who have been denied opportunity by accident of birth, working with asbestos during the 20th century developed incomprehensible debilitation by virtue of occupation.  These people produced products used by all, produced products upon which vast fortunes were made.  This is the single example needed to justify an inclusive health service is provided by all to everyone with a need.

The little people need this service when their earnings hover around the poverty level .... 

Professional politicans rarely experience this type of need .......

 .......... so we award the Full of Shit medal to Paul "Petey" Ryan, not a friend of the little people.

Mitt Romney and Team GB ...

... is there a lesson to be learned ?

The London Olympic was a success from its stunning opening ceremony to the end game party last night, some have described it as the most successful exhibition of sporting excellence of all time, for myself its success lay in the projection of inclusive stakeholder participation by all;  athletes, audience and organisers, that's not to say everything was perfect, but as Sebastian Coe said at the closing ceremony ...

... when it came to our turn, we did it right !

In the USA, the appointment of Paul Ryan by Mitt Romney as his Presidential running mate, sends a very clear message to the population that "things, they will be changing !"

It is the change that is causing concern ....

The most damming condemnation ...

Network, a Catholic social justice lobby group, which organised a six-state "nuns on the bus" tour last month, damned Mr Ryan's proposals as "immoral".
Sister Simone Campbell, Network's executive director, said: "His budget deliberately harms people at the economic margins. It is also unpatriotic because it says that we are an individualistic, selfish nation."

Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" is long on words, with a very simple underlying message, government must shrink!  The full document can be found here, it runs to 99 detailed pages, it might have added a page to explain why Sister Simone Campbell's "people at the economic margins" are not considered as stakeholders in the great nation that is the USA.

As a small country Great Britain came third in the medal tally for this Olympic Games, the success must in a great part be attributed to the way the peoples funded the athletes in the years prior to the games, as Samantha Murray said after winning the silver medal in the very last event, modern pentathlon, "If I can do it, and I'm a normal girl, anyone can do what they want to do."

Shrink government at the expense of the little people of this world and it is a poorer, brutal existence, not civilisation........

WAG, delusion or deceitful or just ...

... plain incompetent, it's a question to ponder.

Devolution is very simple when the rules are followed, and although there are many aspects to devolution in Wales, there is a simple fundamental rule for Carwyn Jones and Co, devolution has distinctive bounds ...

"The Government of Wales Act is clear that the assembly cannot legislate to modify the functions of a minister of the crown without their consent, unless such a modification is consequential or incidental to other provisions in the Bill."

...in simple English, Cardiff Bay cannot legislate Westminster out of Wales, no-matter how seemingly inconsequentially, without the approval of Westminster.

So what's it all about ?

Carwyn and Co, and the company is the whole assembly, voted to pass the Bill that is said to "tidy up and streamline the way council bye-laws in Wales are made", it all happened on 3 July with no members objecting.  The link and the link.

That seems straightforward, except it cuts out of the local government loop the Secretary of State (SoS) for Wales, it has modified the functions of the Rt Hon Cheryl Gillan.  So has WAG been delusion or deceitful or just plain incompetent, there can be very little doubt that the Assembly members collectively are pupils before the headteacher whilst the SoS exists, they have an obligation by virtue of the conditions of Government of Wales Act 2006 to protect her ( it could very well be a him in the near future ) very existence. 

So did this very Welsh Assembly decide behind closed doors with its very secret civil servants to attempt the removal of the SoS from part of Civic Wales by stealth ?

I'm inclined to believe so, Carwyn and Co have tried to disfranchise the SoS of a function, this would have been the very thin end of a democratic wedge, a precedent that future legislation could build upon to divest Wales of the links to Westminster by stealth.

The rules of engagement are changing, it is a short journey from stealth to deception ... neither of which produces Justice for the little people no-matter where they exist.  If the Assembly and its administration at Cardiff Bay wish to cut the links to Westminster the question should be put to the electorate ...

Do you want independence, Yes or No.

... else the Assembly should draw in its neck and stick to the rules that the peoples of Wales have approved through their endorsement at the ballot box.

Returning to the question ...

... delusion or deceitful or just plain incompetent

I'll leave you to decide ....

... can you fool all (update) ...

... the people all of the time ?

Lesley Griffiths

Betsan Powys

Wales on Line

... this politician seems to think so.

... if there were such a thing as Justice, then Carwyn Jones would remove her.

... if there were such a thing as honour, then Griffiths would go,


Update, the British Medical Association say the report is discredited.

IDEA from Harvard ...

... that Carwyn Jones and Co. could adopt;  the "IDEA" brand developed for non-profit sector at Harvard, it stands for ...

... brand "integrity"
... brand "democracy"
... brand "ethics"
... brand "affinity"

The Labour Party certainly has the pedigree, and then there are the deeds, no-one can deny them the deeds that helped shape social justice in Britain.

A Welsh IDEAL, a Welsh Labour IDEA ........

First posted at the BBC David Cornock.

Things are seldom ...

.......................  what they seem,
Skim milk masquerades as cream. **

In today's Times ...

... the story:

Legislation will ban ‘Pravda-style propaganda’

Council-run newspapers that offer householders a rose-tinted view of their local authorities are to be outlawed, the Government has pledged. The papers, called “town hall Pravdas” by critics, are distributed free and are said to be undermining independent local newspapers by competing for advertising.

The Government’s local authority publicity code stipulates that councils must not publish newspapers in direct competition with the local press and that council publications should not appear more than four times a year.

Tower Hamlets Council in East London spends £1.2 million a year on East End Life, a weekly paper that competes directly with the independent, 150-year-old East London Advertiser. In March, one edition published six articles with pictures of the mayor, Lutfur Rahman, and more than 1,000 words of his comments and views.

The Newspaper Society, the trade body for local newspapers, said that at least 45 councils were publishing newspapers in defiance of the code. Of these, 21 are Labour-controlled, 15 Conservative and three Liberal Democrat.

The Government said that legislation proper newspaper. “You don’t have to have your own Pravda to get the message across,” he said.

The Newspaper Society welcomed the plan but suggested that it might be too late for some independent papers struggling to survive. “It is vital that this unfair competition be stopped as a matter of urgency.”

Tower Hamlets council said that it raised £1.18 million in advertising income from East End Life last year and aimed to run it at “net nil cost”. A spokesman said that the legislation “might be considered disproportionate government action and not in the spirit of localism”. “to protect local commercial newspapers from unfair competition from municipal publications” would be introduced in May next year and become law by April 2014.

Bob Neill, the Local Government Minister, told The Times that some council papers seemed to be deliberately trying to drive independent local papers out of business, and described East End Life as an “objectionable use of taxpayers’ money”.

Mr Neill acknowledged that councils had a duty to inform residents about local services, but said that some authorities were using that as “a smokescreen” to publish pro-council material in the guise of a proper newspaper. You don't have to have your own Pravda to get the message across he said.

The Newspaper Society welcomed the plan but suggested that it might he too late for some independent papers struggling to survive, it is vital that this unfair competition be stopped as a matter of urgency. 

Tower Hamlets council said that it raised £1.8 million in advertising income from East End Life last year and aimed to run it at "net nil cost". A spokesman said that the legislation "might be considered disproportionate government action and not in the spirit of localism".

 ... by Ben Webster Media Editor (6 July 2012).

To get a feel for Tower Hamlets newspaper try the link, it takes a few seconds to load the reader, there can be no doubt its a real weekly newspaper, when I compare it with our local weekly in Caerphilly I feel a certain envy.

But the questions raised ...

.. should local authorities be restricted to a statutory maximum frequency of publications.
.. should local authorities be restricted to public service information only publications.

...are irrelevant when we ask the question:

.. should local authorities engage in business of any kind ? 

.. even to the extent of offering subsidies to businesses. 

.. or is it an expression of the will of the electorate when an authority engages in such activities.  

.. and if it is the will of the people then should the Local Government Minister "butt out" in deference to democracy.

I tend to believe he should ..................... butt out that is.


** .... Buttercup to Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore.
 

The single important ...

..quality the non-dom should expect to pay for, and it's not our NHS or social security safety ...

Alice Thomson writes in today's Times ...

The Chancellor must scrap their bizarre hereditary status, then make them pay fair taxes ...

...They are our guests. We should be flattered that they have chosen to live here rather than anywhere else in the world. They tend to use private schools and private GPs. They employ nannies, chauffeurs and endless builders as they convert their basements into swimming pools. They buy £500 Laboutin shoes — think of the VAT on those — and they give employment to our bright graduates as tutors to their children. Britain’s 200,000 non-doms are an asset to our country.

.............................

These aren’t people who will flounder if the Government toughens up the rules. The Treasury should look to America, where above the entrance to the US Internal Revenue Service in Washington are Oliver Wendell Holmes’s words: “Taxes are what we pay for civilised society.” The wealthy come to Britain because it is civilised. They need to pay to keep it that way. 

... it's not the swimming pools or preference for Laboutin shoes that interests me, it is those that claim the non-dom status fail to pay the piper in full, the £30,000 a year (rising to £50,000) entrance fee to the UK fails to account for the sacrifices that the peoples of the UK have made, made so that it is possible for this relatively small group of people can enjoy democracy without the Mafia, either Italian or Russian, democracy needs paying for ....

... by all, including the Non-dom.

... in full.

... in 1066 began the ...

... rape of Britain, a millennium later the Norman yoke might still be detected, not a mailed fist behind the walls of a motte-and-bailey castle, but the iron fist in a velvet glove wielded behind the closed doors of governance. William the Bastard is long gone, but cold calculating Britain keeps a virtual yoke that can still be felt around the necks of the peoples of our lands, and probably all the lands that make our world;  this yoke has been adopted by a new aristocracy, an aristocracy that seems to encompass a multitude of disciplines.


At Westminster our political leaders have come out of their particular closet to impose a fiscal discipline as harsh as the discipline of medieval Britain, not a land that executed people for quite minor crimes or mutilate them and then let them go because it was cheaper than prison, but a land that imposes penalties upon the weakest in society, those without a collective voice.  It is the disadvantaged that will pay the price of the failure of those who led our societies into the abyss of ruin predicted to last a generation.



This leadership is not restricted to Westminster and its closeted (un)civil servants, it cascades down through the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the single most important consideration of politics is their succession, peoples who trust politics to ....

... establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, ...  (We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, ... do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.)

... must look to themselves for the future because politics is in perpetual failure, the proof of this failure is with the "pork barrel" politics of a world wide self appointed political elite that has brought the world to its knees.  In Britain today the political elite is part of a 21st century aristocracy that includes bankers, the media, and a very small group of industrialists from all corners of the world.

In 54 years time exactly a thousand years will have passed since the Norman invasion of England, this half a century is sufficient time to drive a stake through the heart of inequality, to create that domestic tranquillity,to organise an equitable welfare for all the peoples, and to establish liberty as a fundamental right for every person.

How to create this land of equality is the most difficult question of all, the first bastion of inequality to attack must surly be "influence", no interest group should be allowed to dominate our lives, to this end I would propose that our elections should be a proportionate system that promotes the wishes of the electorate to government, no longer should a minority of voters promote a minority dictatorship to Westminster.

In tandem with proportionality all correspondence with and by those in government, no matter what media is used, should become the property of the electorate, published in full, a failure to comply would be regarded as a heinous crime against democracy.

Media ownership should be restricted to a single publication by a single organisation or person, no longer would it be considered appropriate for "media moguls" to exist; government ownership of media should be outlawed, not including public interest broadcasting which should be a-political, reportage only, the very existence of the BBC in its multitude of guises should be destroyed in favour of a multitude of independent organisations dependent on the direct patronage of its viewers.

No bank should be too big to fail, and these banks should be wholly owned by shareholdings restricted to the peoples of Britain, no longer should people external to the effects of our banking system be able to influence the governance of these institutions. 

Taxation should have no exceptions, there might be an allowance before taxes were collected but this would be the only exception, every penny of earnings made within our borders should be taxed in full, no exceptions.  The rule that "if you wish to sell it here then make it here and be taxed" should have no exceptions.  Taxation should also be equitable and graduated, those who take most from society should be expected to give most.

We want an elected government ...

... is the call by the people of Bahrain, the response by the ruling club (the kingdom) has been repression.

Described as a "constitutional monarch" Bahrain is lives a lie, the country is an absolute monarchy in which the monarch serves as the source of power in the state and is not legally bound by any constitution and has the powers to regulate his or her respective government.  In Bahrain this is Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa with his eldest son Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa supported by the unelected Prime Minister His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

In 1775 the war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America kicked off, the result was the birth of a new democracy of the USA, with its own peculiar warts, that is an example of how people can expect to influence their governance;  the other combatant took another 150 years before it resembled a democracy.

The dreadful circumstances in Bahrain are supported by both democracies from that auspicious war of independence, both countries that have supported the other recent North African revolutions and struggles, both countries that fought alongside each other to topple the hideous regime of Saddam Hussein, both countries that are fighting the oppression of the Taliban in Afghanistan, yet not a whisper in support of the call for an elected government in Bahrain.



Obviously it's not convenient for our governments at this time, the people of Bahrain will need to bleed more before they have the support that the people of Libya was given by both Britain and the USA, the quest for democracy is for the faint of heart in the face of hypocrisy, and where are the voices of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, it must be to difficult a choice .... repression versus democracy.

Myself, as an ardent fan of Formula 1 racing, I will give today's race a miss for the second time, has it been a whole year ............

Democracy has the rights of it ...

... abolish the National Assembly?

Would that be right, should the British Government (Westminster) be able to abolish the Welsh Assembly and its associated government ?

Carwyn Jones thinks not (but what turkey ever votes for Christmas), are there circumstances that it is essential that Westminster is able to abolish the Assembly, after all,Wales is part of that greater Britain, it is part of a democratic whole.

If the governance of Wales became oppressive, or belligerent to the British Government Westminster should have the ability to close Cardiff Bay, much as Cardiff Bay closed democratic (unruly) Anglesey. 

If policing had been devolved, could WAG be trusted to cooperate across forces, would Carwyn have approved of the busing in of the police during the miners strike.

Of course VM has asked a vital question in this political dilemma .... do we have the calibre of leaders that we trust, or the institutions strong enough (Westminster aside) to hold Carwyn and chums to task, I doubt it very much.

Elin Jones, a new set of teeth, ...

... unfortunately they belong to someone else.

She said ...

"If Plaid wins a mandate to govern, any attempt to ignore that mandate by the UK Government will be an affront to the collective will of the people of Wales and I won’t stand for that. The days of a lapdog Welsh First Minister will end when Carwyn Jones leaves office, and Westminster had better get used to that."

... and what was it all about ?

... speculation that Trident will be located when Scotland becomes independent. Milford Haven has been suggested as an alternative site by some defence analysts.

Elin Jones, leadership hopeful also said ...

"... Plaid Cymru has always been fiercely opposed to the UK’s possession of weapons of mass destruction and I want to reassert our opposition as the debate about the future of Trident grows in light of the Scottish independence referendum"

In full, an article by Martin Shipton, at WalesOnline

The outpourings of this Plaid hopeful is an own goal, she would be expected to explain why she opposed the 40,000 jobs the re-location would attract.  Nuclear weapons are not a particularly family friendly set of options, but we have them as a packet with the Trident delivery system.  It needs a deep water port ......... this is something we are definitely all in it together, unless you bury your heads in the sand during war as some have ...

I guess Vodafone is amongst the robber ...

... baron companies of the world that steal taxes from countries in which they operate.

Nicholas Shaxson in his "Treasure Islands" (£8.99 from Amazon), subtitled "Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World", explains what is wrong with global finance  ...

... he write, while many might dismiss tax havens as offshore homes for spivs, money-launderers and the odd celebrity, in fact they help big companies and the super-rich to avoid paying tax, tax that totals "$1000 billion" each year.

... that's a trillion dollars, a trillion dollars unspent in the countries that the wealth is created, a trillion dollars that should be underpinning the health and welfare of the little people who have no voice in this unjust world.

Update on my entry for yesterday ...

The dispute has severely dented India’s reputation as a safe place for foreign companies to do business. Many are facing similar tax cases that could be affected by the judgment, including Cadbury, GE, Vedanta, AT&T, Sanofi-Aventis and SABMiller. The companies declined to comment on the decision, although one representative said: "Clearly, it does provide some encouragement."

... recognise the household names that are siphoning off the taxes from India through the use of offshore tax havens or countries that give advantage to business.

Time to create a level playing field that includes "justice" in the rules of the game.

Salmond 1 - Democracy Zero, and all ...

... because ...

Salmond, aka Scotland's Governor General, "has said the SNP government in Edinburgh does not need legal authority to proceed", proceed with a referendum.

Is he right ?

Of course not, no national or regional government is above the law, even where it makes the law, and the law says "constitutional matters" are reserved to Westminster.  But being wrong is trumped each time in Salmonds' game of chance when he plays the "Scotland the Brave" wildcard.

The answer to our Scottish poltroon is difficult yet simple, it is to give the Scots no alternative, Westminster should announce "severance talks this summer following the Olympic Games in London", bypass the referendum, explain to the Scots that there are far more important issues than the politics of "Nationalist Scotland".

And the logic, if Salmond fails to get his perverse way he will continue to trump the politics of the Union with "Scotland the Brave", but without the rule of law Democracy has lost, Westminster must let its partner go, there is no logical answer to a trump card.  Britain, get used to the name, cannot afford the distraction that Salmond and Co. brings to the table.