What I do in private is none of your business

When the government tells us we have nothing to worry about if we have nothing to hide, that is a quite ridiculous and unacceptable argument, and it is an attitude of mind that we must vigorously challenge in our rulers. These people cannot seem to distinguish between privacy and secrecy. We all have secrets, and we all have a right to our secrets as long as they do not threaten anyone else. But more important, we all have a right to privacy that supersedes any right a government may claim to invade that privacy. For example, we not only have a right to privacy in our bedrooms and our toilet, but no-one, in whatever capacity, has the right, for any reason, to remove our bedroom and toilet doors so that they can invade that privacy. Such areas of our lives are ours, and cannot be claimed as legitimate areas of interest by anyone else. Not only do we have the right to privacy in the bedroom and the toilet, but we have a right to secrecy, as its no-one else's business what we do there, regardless of how accurate their assessment of what we are doing. I may be doing things in the bedroom and the toilet that you find disgusting or unacceptable, but, as long as they are doing nobody else any harm, that is no-one's business. Now, what the authorities are telling us is that they have a right to invade such areas of our lives, in case we are planning to do other people harm, but that is not a legitimate argument. When anyone, whether police, security, or government, attempts to claim that they have a legitimate interest in what we do in such areas of our life, then that is a step too far. My phone is private, as is my email, or text messages. What I convey to other people by phone, text, or email is my secret and must only be revealed to the people I choose to reveal them to. No government or government agency has any right whatsoever to invade such areas of my life, and certainly no right to share them with the United States or any other country. British politicians and their security services are actually working on the premise that whatever they do or say is private, but everything else is public. They are the only people in society that have any rights to either privacy or secrecy, and if we challenge such notions then we will be treated as a terrorist.

Now that we know that such activity is exactly what the government and its agencies are indeed doing then it is now that we should be asking what the purpose of government is, and holding these people to account. Britain is swiftly descending into a police and security state in which the police and security services have abandoned their fundamental functions of protecting us, and have adopted the role of protecting a small and privileged elite and promoting their interests at the expense of the rest of the population. Rather than protect the people, they are in fact preventing the people from challenging the ruling elite and holding them to account. They are adopting a mindless approach that simply obeys orders from their superiors on the assumption that their superiors must be both correct and superior to the rest of society. They are also treating everyone in the UK as a potential terrorist. There is something deeply sick and psychopathic about people who spend their lives reading people's Facebook and Twitter accounts, it is the lowest kind of voyeurism imaginable, but there is something deeply sinister in the politicians who employ them to do so. Thus, it is not the people of Britain who have anything to hide, it is our politicians and security services.

It must never be forgotten that government is derivative, and derives it roles and functions from the people who elect it into government. Governments do not have rights, only people have rights. Governments are simply people like you and me who happen to waken up some morning and find that they have been elected into office. They are not in government because they are superior to you and me, or have special gifts, talents and abilities. They are in government simply because they managed to harness enough votes to win an election. If we elect people into parliament who have particular talents then that is actually a fortunate accident, we have no way of knowing that before they take office, and if you look at the personnel that occupy government at this time in the United Kingdom, then you can only conclude that we often make terrible mistakes. The Westminster system is sick, and is beginning to look terminal. But it is infecting most of the major institutions in our society to the point that someone like me may not have very long left to exercise the freedom to post blogs like this. You have been warned

Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat.

Ed Milliband, the workers' friend, eh?

I am  returning to a theme I spoke about on the 4th of June. I warned you that Labour were going to commit themselves to honour the government's spending commitments if they win the next election. I trust you have seen that Milliband has now made that official Labour policy. Thus, Labour has promised to hold to the government's economic policies, have promised to maintain the spending cuts, and have promised to cap all benefits if they come to power. So, what difference will they make, answer, nothing! Today, Nick Clegg also reveals that the Liberals are taking exactly the same path.

Labour are now firmly revealed as a Tory party mark two, a neoliberal free market party who are posing as the party of ordinary people, and that in reality, we are being given the choice between three Tory parties all trying to convince us that they are the best placed to make the free market economy work best.

As a result, Labour and the Liberals are telling us that they are abandoning the unemployed, the sick, the disabled and people on benefits. They are abandoning the health service, education etc. to the tyranny of the market. They are in fact telling us that the Tories have actually got it spot on. So, why vote Labour? I sincerely ask someone out there to come on and tell me an answer to that if they are able.

Now, when the Better Together campaign in Scotland attempt to convince us that we are indeed better together, I will be most interested to hear their reasons as Milliband has just pulled the carpet from under their feet. They have been left with no arguments. The case for Scottish Independence is now overwhelming and in fact unanswerable. It is very possible that I am missing something in the debate for or against Independence, and I genuinely want to hear from anyone who thinks I am wrong. All we are getting from the three major parties is smoke and mirrors and I have not yet heard anything substantive from them. It's the same old patriotic garbage, personal attacks on anyone from the opposition, and how the Scots are too thick to go it alone. At least the Tories are honest, they hate the Scots and working people, they hate anyone who is disadvantaged and don't bother hiding it. Labour however, are the most hypocritical and loathsome bunch imaginable, they are a genuine disgrace. I will remind you here that when I speak of the Scots, I speak of the people who live in Scotland, and who are a wide mixture of diverse ethnic and cultural groups, and when you are listening to all the propaganda from the better together campaign, remember that Scotland has a wide range of cultures and talents, a genuine multicultural and sophisticated society.

Now before anyone accuses me of being an SNP stooge, I belong to no political party. The biggest lie from the better together group is that anyone who supports the Yes campaign is SNP. It never occurs to them that some people possess a modicum of decency and are more intelligent than vote for the obscenity that passes for the Westminster system of government. When the unionists are attempting to convince you of the benefits of staying within the UK, you MUST DEMAND that they explain to you how we are going to benefit under the agreed aims of policies of the Westminster parties. What on earth is going to be different from the misery and confusion that is modern Britain?

Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat

Visit Brazil before Brazil visits you

I apologise profusely for neglecting you for too long. I have been working hard getting my book ready for publication, and must apologise again for such blatant publicity seeking. However, if you live in the West of Scotland, I would love to meet you at the launch of the book which you are all of course invited to. I will give you all the details when they are finalised.

I hope you are keeping up with the events unfolding in Brazil. Over a million people have taken to the streets in protest at the avarice and greed of their ruling elite, sound familiar? They have been met with unprincipled brutality by the police with the support of the government, sound familiar? They have been ignored by the government and the parliament who of course claim a democratic mandate for their austerity measures, because, wait for it, there is no alternative, sound familiar? We now have Brazil joining Greece, Portugal, Turkey etc in telling their authorities that enough is enough, and being totally ignored. Yet all these countries, like the United Kingdom, claim to be representative democracies.

I have been warning for some time that all this is coming here. The worst of the government's measures are still to come and a backlash is inevitable as people increasingly find that they cannot make ends meet and see their rulers and the managerial classes continuing to enrich themselves at their expense. We now have over half a million people being fed every day from foodbanks whilst Parliament is poised to award themselves a 15% increase. Our leaders now inhabit an alternative universe, but they will be brought to reality before too long. As Abe Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. There are good reasons for the British predicament, and they revolve around the fact that the dominant ideas that exist in our society and that govern our policy making agenda are fraudulent. The fundamentals of free market economic and political theory are simply wrong. I will address these issues, and trust that you will find them interesting, even if you disagree with me.

Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat

British government and the Rule of Law

I have been critical of our governments of recent history for the gradual destruction of our human and civil rights, and for their threat to stable and lawful government. One of their measures is a serious reform to legal aid in the pursuit of their austerity measures. Let me quote Lord Neuberger, the President of the UK Supreme Court.

“Unless you have access to legal advice for poorer people, you have not got the rule of law. We are at risk of denying access to justice, and that damages the rule of law. People end up being disillusioned with government and the whole democratic system. You get more and more people who don’t believe in the government we have, which is very undermining, or who end up taking the law into their own hands, or a bit of both, which is not good for us, nor for the country. The two most important functions of government are to protect the country from invasion and attack from abroad and to ensure the rule of law at home. Unless you do those two things you might as well not bother with welfare, education, health and housing because it’s not a country worth living in. Access to justice and an efficient justice system are an essential ingredient of the rule of law.

Note that, for Lord Neuberger, the government is here being held responsible for criminality which is the result of deliberate government policy. Not only is the government losing its authority, but so is the law. Also, the requirement to protect the country from attack from abroad, does not allow for the abandonment of the rule of law. Thus, both of the government’s strategies for tackling the financial crisis, its programme of austerity, and for tackling what it calls its war on terror, the persistent undermining of civil liberties, are wrong. Both the financial crisis and the problem of domestic terrorism, are the direct result of deliberate government policy. Both are seriously damaging the rule of law and making the country not worth living in.

In other aspects of the government's class arrogance, Iain Duncan Smith claims that it is perfectly possible, in 2013, to live adequately on £53 per week. It is reported in the press that at the time of telling the British people that, he was spending £35 per day on his breakfast. Michael Gove, another minister in the government, authorised over £8000 expenses for his advisers on taxpayer funded credit cards for overseas trips over an 18 month period, including meals for £180 in one restaurant. In the 18 months prior to October 2011, the government authorised £471 million on taxpayer funded credit cards for its Departments. When asked about this expenditure, the government simply refuse to provide any details about what was purchased and why? What neither the government nor the general public seem to understand is that these types of expenses are a form of welfare benefit. In May 2013, the Prime Minister had a holiday in Ibiza at a villa that cost c£11,000 per week. Now it was reported that he was sharing the expenses with another two families, but even with that he was spending over £3000 a week simply on accommodation when his Welfare and Pensions Secretary was telling everyone else how they should be happy on £53 per week for all their living expenses. Even though the Prime Minister was paying for this out of his own pocket, conspicuous behaviour of this sort, at a time when over half a million children are being fed on a daily basis from foodbanks is a definite recipe for social unrest.

As a result, the government are sending a clear signal to the rest of society that the rules they expect the population to adhere to do not apply to them. The government are actively and quite indifferently, undermining the rule of law by their behaviour, and, never forget, if the government do not feel bound to respect their own laws, then they cannot expect anyone else to do so either.

 

Your Servant

Doktor Kommirat

 

 

 

 

Britain the uncivilised

It is now officially admitted by the Obama administration that the US government has made it a requirement for phone companies to provide details of all phone calls being made at any time within the United States and for all foreign calls involving American citizens. That of course includes you if you are making a call to a relative or friend in America. This practice, begun by George Bush has been systematically denied by the American government until it was revealed by the Guardian newspaper. Thus, the American government has not only been illegally spying on its own people but lying through its teeth.

The Conservatives are desperate to introduce this practice in the UK, and the Home Secretary Theresa May has been quite open about the fact that she will not stop trying to get such powers until she succeeds. All of this is being done on the excuse of their so-called war on terror, when of course it is no such thing, that is the excuse, it is not the reason. The reason is that they wish to know everything about everyone who opposes anything they do, of which so-called terrorists plots are only a tiny fraction of that.

Similarly, they have just announced that they are going to give the police powers to issue spot fines to motorists. This is simply a sly way of introducing another form of indirect taxation and has nothing to do with road safety. For example, you may now be fined £100 if you persist in driving in the middle lane of a motorway. Now, I confess that people doing this make me mad, but I hardly think that it qualifies as a criminal offence.

It is long overdue that we have a serious and national debate as to the roles and functions of government in this country. Governments have no rights, only people have rights, and governments of all parties now take it for granted that they have the right to do whatever they want, and, because they have been elected into power, they insist that we must accept what they do. There are no skills required to be a member of parliament, no training, all that is required is to be able to harness a sufficient number of votes. Politicians are people just like you or me, they may be a teacher, or a doctor, or a cleaner, or unemployed and the next day find themselves in parliament. as a result no politician has any right for any reason to demand to know that kind of information or to criminalise driving in the centre lane of a motorway, especially politicians who are themselves terrorists and lawbreakers.

I have spoken here about how our government's have thrown people into jail without charge or even knowing why they are there, and we now have proof that people have been incarcerated in Belmarsh prison without charge, reason, or access to lawyers. I will leave you with the thoughts of Winston Churchill who was Prime minister during the Second World War and who wrote in 1943

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers – is, in the highest degree, odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government." Any such power, Churchill continued, was a response to emergency "that should be yielded up, when and as, the emergency declines ... This is really the test of civilisation."

By this criteria, British government is both odious and uncivilised and we are failing as a civilised society. In addition we are descending into totalitarianism. You have been warned

Your Servant

Doktor Kommirat
 

Spending plans must stay in place

For all of our people who oppose Scottish independence and all who think that the Labour Party are going to solve our problems and bring back our prosperity I trust you have been following Labour's proposals for government if they win the next election. This also applies to people who may support independence on the assumption that Labour will provide good governance of an independent Scotland.

Yesterday Ed Balls the Shadow Chancellor committed Labour to accept the spending plans of the coalition government if they win the next election. As a result, Labour is accepting that there is no more money. What that means is that Labour accept that they will have no more income after the election than that planned by the present government. All government income comes from taxation. Therefore, Labour are telling us that they have no intention of raising taxation, of taxing bankers bonuses, of taxing the super-rich, of recouping the taxation that is being lost on an industrial scale through fraud by both companies and individuals, or of recouping any of the money they gave to bail out the banks. They are however, and this is coming from the party that claims to represent ordinary working people, going to install an immediate cap on benefits. Up to last April, Britain had spent £39billion in Afghanistan, that is on top of the cost of the war in Iraq. They are planning to spend £25billion on a new Trident weapons system. They spent £8.92billion, yes that was billion, on the Olympics. The cost of the Queens diamond jubilee is unknown at the moment, but the Thames pageant alone cost £25million, and the bank holiday was estimated to cost the economy £1.5billion. So, that's ok to spend billions on the queens jubilee, but if a union calls a day's strike they are branded traitors and communists. However, according to all Westminster parties there is no money so they will have to cap benefits and continue the Tories programme of cuts.

What this all means of course, is that, even if Labour wins the next election absolutely nothing is going to change. In Scotland the Labour Party under Ms Lamont declared war on the 'something for nothing' society. Thus, in Scotland we have been given ample warning that the unemployed and those on benefits are in Labour's sights for a good kicking. If you vote for more of the same in the coming referendum then don't say you haven't been warned. Britain's politicians of all parties love the rich and bear a hatred and contempt for the poor and unfortunate and are determined to grind them into the dust. If you support them, you would do well to remember the warnings of Pastor Neimoller

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat