Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(Midsummer 2004)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
What the British Newspapers Say. (For those
who do not read newspapers)
As I mentioned in the paragraph, "Observations
on current day Britain by an outsider", I utilized
the British news media and used comments made to me by
British people in order to formulate my opinions, and
here are some of the quotes obtained from those media
sources on a day-by-day basis.
-
Postal voting Fiasco.
The British Government scrapped
the ballot box for local and European elections in
much of Northern England permitting only postal votes,
which affected up to 14 million voters. The results
were chaotic to say the least with many of the complex
forms, which in some areas were up to 2ft long, not
being delivered on time with the result that the
voting process was turned into a full scale shambles
and up to "one in twenty voters" had
their ballot papers rejected because they hadn’t
been completed properly. Forms were also returned to
voters in the tens of thousands because the voters failed
to complete the accompanying witness statement.
-
Britain goes to the polls.
In an unprecedented
triple election, the people of Britain were asked
to: 1) Choose 78 MEPs to represent Britain in the
European Parliament, 2) Choose a London Mayor and
25 London Assembly Members, 3) Elect 6,103 local
councillors for166 local authorities.
A daunting
task indeed, as the people of Britain have never
been asked to vote in three significant elections
on one day and 14 million people in northern England
were subjected to an experiment in compulsory postal
voting which turned out to be a complete disaster.
-
The Labour Party suffered an unprecedented defeat
at the polls.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who
was out of the country when the voting took place,
admitted that the Labour Party overlooked the fact
that the war with Iraq was going to play a major part
in the result. The question now arises as to whether
the Labour party could be heading for a similar disaster
in the next General election. In the worst local election
defeat suffered by any British Government the Labour
Party finished a dismal third with Labours share of
the vote plunging to 26%.
-
Prime Minister Blair refuses to pull out of the
European Union.
Mr. Blair ruled out any "U" turn
in his European policy, despite the gains made by
the recently formed anti-European United Kingdom
Independence Party, (UKIP), who received 16% of the
vote in the election for members of the European
Parliamentary, which quadrupled its membership to
twelve. Mr. Blair also refused to apologize for backing
the war in Iraq which many members of his own party
blame for Labours humiliation in the local and EU
elections.
-
Is the housing bubble about to burst?
A stark warning from the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, that
mortgage prices will continue to climb and house prices could soon start
to fall back after a decade of uninterrupted growth could stir grim memories
of the great property crash of the early nineties.
The Bank of England
has raised interest rates four times since November of 2003 and is widely
expected to raise the base rate to 4.75% in August of 2004. Consequently
mortgage lending fell by one billion UK pounds last month as the booming
housing market finally showed signs of slowing and the number of potential
home buyers has plummeted in recent weeks.
-
The ubiquitous Speed Cameras.
The Labour Government
claims that speed cameras reduce casualties on the
road, even though statistics have shown that casualties
have increased at one in seven sites where speed
cameras are located. It is expected that some three
million motorists will be caught speeding this year
by the massive network of roadside speed cameras.
Can one suggest/assume that the multi-millions
pounds per annum, collected by the imposition of
fines is more of a revenue producing device for
local authorities than a safety oriented program?
-
Labour plans to legalize prostitution in Britain.
Home Secretary Blunkett’s radical plan to make
it legal to buy and sell sex in official "tolerance
zones", (aptly re-named by Church
of England officials as "degradation zones"), in the belief
that it will make it easier to protect women from exploitation and violence
and assist in the provision of treatment for drug addiction and sexually
transmitted diseases.
Wonder if a "tolerance zone" will be set up in close proximity
to the Houses of Parliament or would it be a case of not in my backyard.
Whilst they are debating the issue perhaps they would consider installing
cameras in the brothels in order obtain extra revenue from the Johns who
use such services.
-
Prime Minister Blair has a plan to impose identity
cards.
The plan apparently is to concentrate individual
information, legally obtained about each and every
individual, on a microchip which will be implanted
into a National Identity Card.
Comment: If the British Government can reassure the general public that the
information obtained and implanted in the Identity card will used for the
sole purpose of identification of the individual carrying such a card, and
that the information will be not abused by the authorities for illegal purposes,
then I would consider it to be an excellent means of controlling illegal
immigration. I would add one essential proviso, should anyone be found to
have used and divulged such information for illegal purposes beyond official
identification then that person, or persons, or authority, using the information
illegally should suffer severe penalties, no matter who or what they may
be.
Everyone of World War Two vintage will recognize the value of the identification
card, but I’m not sure that the current generation will tolerate an
intrusion into their private lives, (Civil rights), especially if it is going
to be mandatory for each individual over sixteen years of age, to purchase
such a card for a fee of 40 UK Pounds.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
|
