ARE DEFENCE CUTS PUTTING THE UK AT RISK?

It may sound astonishing but the hard truth is that since October the Royal Navy has not had a single vessel defending the British Isles. Since the Strategic Defence Review of last year, Britain's fleet of frigates and destoyers was cut from 23 to 19 despite previous Conservative claims that we needed a navy of no less than 40 ships.Many believe that the defence cuts imposed by the former Defence Secretary, Dr Liam Fox went too far and this latest revellation will support this view.

The reason that there are no ships available to protect us is because ten warships had been deployed to the Mediterranean to support our involvement in Libya. It is small comfort to know that most of these are now on their way back, but while we were defending other people's causes the UK was not being adequately protected. It is shoddy of our Government to leave Britain so badly protected while money continues to be pumped into military activities in Libya and Afghanistan and when the foreign aid budget is being substantially increased and we are still paying vast sums to India, Pakistan and China. India will be receiving £1bn in aid over three years despite having a growing economy and a space and nuclear weapons programme. Although there is no immediate threat from any foreign country, an attack from a terrorist source continues to pose a real risk.Yet, the Government flaunts Britain to the World as a major power when in reality we have very little capability to defend our islands. Should the Falkland Islands, as an example, come under a renewed threat of invasion from Argentina, which is not beyond the realms of probability, Britain simply would not have the resources to defend it.

Cameron has to be asked why the interests of other countries continues to be considered as more important than the needs of our own citizens?  

Read STEPHEN GLOVER'S report in the Daily Mail

FAIR FUEL UK CAMPAIGN TO BE DEBATED ON TUESDAY 15 NOVEMBER

The Fair Fuel campaign succeeded in gathering more than 100,000 signatures to prompt the Government to debate the issues. This will be taking place on Tuesday 15 November.

Please lobby your MP to attend. 

BERCOW IS THE LATEST TO HAVE HIS SNOUT IN THE TROUGH

Kirsty Walker has revealed in the Daily Mail today how the Speaker of the House, John Bercow has been blowing public money to pay for two suits. According to Ms Walker's report and information she has obtained under the FOI Act, Bercow spent £3,200 on a morning suit for ceremonial events, such as the royal wedding, and £485 on a white tie and tails to wear at state dinners. This raises the issue of why somebody earning £140,000 a year cannot be expected to buy his own suits more especially as the Prime Minister pays for his own suits. Bercow's expenses is a further example of politicians putting two fingers up to taxpayers and Cameron should demand that he pays this money back and be brought to task over his excessive spending.   

Bercow also spent £14,000 on chauffeur driven cars during his first six months in office and has spent £45,000 on refurbishments at his grace and favour apartment in Westminster Palace that he shares with his wife Sally, three children and nanny. This included a sofa costing £7,500.

Read the full story

FORMER MP ELLIOTT MORLEY RELEASED FROM JAIL AFTER SERVING ONLY A QUARTER OF HIS SENTENCE

If the sentence served by former Environment Minister Elliot Morley is anything to go by, it seems that crime can pay – at least when it is committed by someone who is privileged. The ex- Scunthorpe MP was sentenced to 16 months in jail last May after robbing taxpayers of £30,000 in bogus expenses claims. Now he is free after serving a mere fraction of his sentence.

He served his few months at HM Ford open prison in West Sussex – no doubt being given every privilege afforded under the system and safe from persecution by hardened criminals. Had he been an unemployed youth and stolen money from an individual in order to buy food it is likely that the punishment would have been more severe –and he would have been sentenced to serve his time in an ordinary prison. But the sentence given to Morley suggests that by defrauding the state when you are in a position of trust is less of a crime. The adopted son of Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour was handed the same length of sentence for rioting and tearing a union flag from the Cenotaph – not a commendable thing to do I grant you – but it will be interesting to see how long he spends behind bars. 

Morley was the first former minister to be sentenced after he had faked mortgage payments for his home in North Lincolnshire between 2004 and 2007. During his trial the judge – Mr Justice Saunders referred to Morley as being ‘blatantly dishonest’ yet this was not reflected in the lenient sentence handed down. It is a matter of conjecture whether the sentence would have been more severe had Morley been an ordinary person - not an MP - but his early release does not send out a very good message about the fairness of our legal system and this is bound to give rise to public anger.

After Margaret Moran’s sobbing appearance in court this week charged with 21 offences – even if she is found guilty it appears she will have little to fear by the time sentence is passed down.

How long did the guilty politicians serve. See the Telegraph

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO INSPECT YOUR COUNCIL'S BOOKS?

Most councils will not openly promote the fact that the law requires them to make their accounts  available for scrutiny.  But they are and many councils have subscribed to a scheme make them open to you online - but here's the catch - THEY ONLY HAVE TO MAKE THEM AVAILABLE FOR 20 DAYS A YEAR.

This seems to be nonsense to me. Why aren't ALL councils required to make them available online and permanently?

Nevertheless, it does give you the right to see where every penny of your council tax is being spent - not just amounts of £500 or more. Unless  you have an eye for accounts you may find it difficult to understand how the information has been compiled but you will probably still be able to uncover some interesting - and often seemingly unnecessary spending sprees. 

Many people do not realise that they have a right to know what councils are spending your money on. To assist you with finding out, an online search engine has been created to tell you when you have a right to inspect the information that should link directly to information provided by more than 280 local authorities. Despite the law stating that councils must provide this information, not all have signed up to be included on the search engine. Perhaps they should. 

If you want to find out when you can inspect your council's accounts online

I am grateful to the Tax Payers' Alliance for releasing this information.

WE CANNOT MAKE EXCUSES FOR RIOTING - BUT PARLIAMENT MUST TACKLE SOCIAL DEPRIVATION

Additional material as recommended reading: 'The Moral Decay of our Society is as bad at the top as at the bottom' by Peter Oborne

The most poignant scene that came out of the dreadful violence of the last week has been the highly emotive and dignified speech made by Tariq Jahan, the father of Haroon, one of the three men senselessly mowed down in Winson Green, who called for sanity and to urge people not to seek revenge for the tragic events that resulted in his son's death. We must all learn something from this. 

The rioting that occurred across our nation has been dreadful and can never be condoned in any way.  We must make every effort to ensure that the scenes we witnessed in Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Tottenham and many other parts of the country, including some that never made the headlines, will never be repeated. In view of the scope and extend of the violence it is a miracle that so few have been killed or seriously injured but hundreds have become the innocent victims of indiscriminate vandalism and arson that cannot be tolerated.

The debates will continue long into the future and differences of opinion will prevail over the causes of the shocking devastation and the ways that we should be dealing with mindless acts of violence. But the rioting that took place has long been expected and there have been plenty of warnings that civil unrest of this magnitude had been festering just beneath the surface for some considerable time. Community leaders from areas that are particularly vulnerable have been telling the authorities of this but as usual nobody was prepared to take any notice. 

THE PRICE OF FUEL IS CRIPPLING THE COUNTRY

Most of the price we pay for petrol or diesel is tax. FairFuelUK recently carried out research showing that motorists pay excess taxes of around £18 billion over and above the cost they would reasonably be expected to pay for things like road building. This is especially tough for families and businesses as it is now more expensive than ever to do the school run, go for the weekly shop, or for small business owners to go about their work. It also hurts the UK’s competitiveness: European rates of fuel duty are up to 24p per litre less than in the UK. There was a 1p per litre cut in fuel duty in the Budget four months ago but that was little more than a gesture to long-suffering motorists.


The campaign FairFuelUK has been set up to try and change this. Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow, has also set up the FairFuelUK All Party Working Group in the House of Commons. On Wednesday, the group rolled a car down Whitehall to ‘push’ for lower pump prices and draw attention to the issue. The group then delivered a letter outlining their concerns to David Cameron at Number 10. We joined them to show our support for lower fuel taxes.

If you think that petrol and diesel prices are too high then add your voice to their campaign. They have a petition on their website which you can sign here. Additionally, you can write to your MP and ask if they are joining Mr Halfon’s FairFuelUK All Party Working Group.