Gordon Brown Forced To Listen To The Electorate

I have no doubt Gordon Brown, our unelected leader, will be fuming this morning. In a huge climb down, Alister Darling, his protege and mouthpiece, has announced that the low paid who have lost out due to the removal of the 10p tax band will be compensated for their losses. It will be backdated, though it will not even be decided exactly how it will established until the autumn.

Few will have even the slightest doubt that the only reason this has happened is because of the possibility of losing a vote in the house of commons that was critical of the change together with the likelyhood of a disasterous result in the local elections in May.

This uturn demonstrates as clearly as anything could that the PM is only interested in power. He totally dismissed the feelings of the public at large who have complained vigourously about the removal of the 10p tax band until it became clear it would lose votes. Only days ago he was insisting that the removal of the 10p tax rate was the right thing to do and there was no need to make any changes at all.

Yet more damage done to the Labour party brought about by their peculiar choice to elect as prime minister a man most people would avoid if they saw him in the pub.

A Ban On Lighters But Naked Flames Are Ok

Am I the only person who finds it somewhat bizarre that you or I cannot take a cigarette lighter on board and aircraft, nor can we smoke on board for reasons of safety yet the olympic torch can be flown around the world without anyone stopping the person carrying it from boarding? Have Airport Security all gone on strike?

The olympic torch is in the hands of the Chinese, a nation not exactly renowned for freedom of the individual, yet they have the freedom to carry a lighted torch on board an aircraft. So I presume that if I turn up at an airport with a lighted torch I will be allowed to board without any problem too since we live in a supposedly free, fair and democratic country.

Grumbles In The Government

A commons motion tabled by some labour backbenchers has been withdrawn following comments from the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The motion followed concerns raised about the withdrawal of the 10% tax band which is such a help to poorer families. The Prime Minister has said that he will look again at the the effect of the changes.
There had also been some criticism from one minister of the budget measures on alcohol which increased the tax levied, much to the horror of publicans and drinkers alike. However he later claimed that his comments did not reflect his views! Apparently he wholeheartedly supports the government position even though he did not deny criticising the measures.
There does seem to be a mood of disappointment with the Prime Minister and the government recently as evidenced by the BBC report that one MP suggested that any previous ministers who criticise the government should be ‘infected with Rabies’ When MPs start saying rather peculiar things like that you can be sure they are not entirely happy with the way things are going and feel vulnerable.