Queen's Speech today!!

John Lydon,1977...

God save the queen her fascist regime
It made you a moron a potential h bomb !

God save the queen she aint no human being
There is no future in englands dreaming

Dont be told what you want dont be told what you need
Theres no future no future no future for you

God save the queen we mean it man (God save window leen)
We love our queen God saves (God save... human beings)

God save the queen cos tourists are money
And our figurehead is not what she seems
Oh God save history God save your mad parade
Oh lord God have mercy all crimes are paid

When theres no future how can there be sin
Were the flowers in the dustbin
Were the poison in your human machine
Were the future your future

God save the queen we mean it man
There is no future in englands dreaming

No future for you no future for me*
No future no future for you

John Lydon, 2008...

* = unless it's flogging butter

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Exclusive!! MUMBAI - NOT A MOSSAD CIA JOB

Someone please wake me up and tell me I'm dreaming all of this...

Here's a delightful piece of news hidden away at the very end of a long, innocuous looking BBC article...

"...Under the plans, which have been devised by former cabinet minister Alan Milburn, 10-year "franchises" for services such as GPs and colleges would be up for tender.

Others proposals include making grant-funded students who drop out of university pay back part or all the money.

Also, forcing local authorities to spend more money on youth services and the creation of civilian security force consisting of military trainers, civil servants, police officers, judges and other logistical staff."

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Austrian Monopoly

One of the cornerstones of the official narrative of the current economic meltdown is the excuse that 'no-one saw the collapse of the housing market coming'

This is, of course, nonsense

Anyone vaguely numerate, or blessed with even a passing knowledge of history, was equipped with all that was needed to anticipate the inevitable crash

Greed, stupidity, ignorance and the endless human capacity for self-deception all contributed to ensuring that the majority of people played along with the madness for as long as the people who orchestrated it considered to be expedient

I had reason to consider the ignorance part of the equation whilst, of all things, playing a game of Monopoly with some kids a few days ago




From an amateur economician's point of view, one of the interesting things about Monopoly is that the longer a game lasts the more money goes on the table. Regular cash injections are made into the game every time a player circuits the board and receives a crisp £200 from the bank for their trouble.

The Monopoly economy goes from strength to strength and players are able to buy land and build houses thanks to the generous handouts from the bank

The problem with the Monopoly economy and the reason why it dawned on me the other day that it is a particularly sneaky example of subliminal programming is that, unlike the world the children grow up into, the Monopoly bank never gets round to clawing all the money back

One simple rule change would transform a game of Monopoly into a powerful educational tool that could possibly help junior avoid turning into a financial fuckwit when he grows up...

After the first 30 minutes of play, the bank stops giving out £200 every time the player goes round the board and demands payment of £250 each time instead

As each player succumbs to inevitable bankruptcy they are forced to stand outside on the street, in the rain, holding a half empty can of budget lager

Play continues until the bank has removed all liquidity from the game and repossessed all the property

Anyone who was daft enough to have played the game then has to ask the banker's permission to take a piss for the rest of their lives...




Next Week - 'Thomas the Tank Engine - A Marxist Analysis'


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and today's Downfall spoof is...

A Tory, two wings of the same bird, production but I did laugh...




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Giving up Liberties for Freedom pt315

I've just been booking tickets for my dear old Mum to fly to New Zealand next year

You can either fly via Asia or via the US. If you travel through the US you get twice the baggage allowance

Unfortunately, my Mum's passport isn't one of the new chipped jobbies required to travel through the US - which means she has to either get a new passport or apply for a C1 Transit Visa...


C-1 Visa - Transit

In general, travelers in transit through the United States require valid C-1 visas. That is unless they are eligible to transit the United States visa free under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), or they are a national of a country which has an agreement with the United States allowing their citizens to travel to the United States without visas.

If you are not eligible to transit the United States under the VWP, or are not a national of a country where visa requirements are waived, you will be required to apply for a transit (C-1) visa before traveling.

All C-1 visa applicants, even children and babies listed in parents' passports are required to:

* Complete the visa application form DS-156.

* Pay a visa application fee;

* Present a passport or other travel document valid for at least six months beyond the holder's period of stay in the United States with at least one blank page - the six-month requirement does not apply to United Kingdom passports;

* Provide one photograph which meet State Department regulations;

and present evidence of

* sufficient funds to cover all expenses while in the United States; and

* evidence to show that the applicant has a residence abroad to which he/she intends to return at the end of the stay in the United States. This is generally established by evidence of family, professional, property, employment or other ties and commitments to some country other than the United States sufficient to cause the applicant to return there at the conclusion of his/her stay.


plus, of course, there's the compulsory fingerprinting of all arrivals to the US, even if they're transiting on the way to somewhere else

We've opted to give the Land of the Free a miss and fly through Commie controlled Hong Kong instead

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Blah

I'm currently suffering from that strange, joyless feeling serial pessimists experience when their worst fears are fulfilled

Where's the fun in being right about something if people are suffering

Whilst not monster-significant in itself, the UK pre budget report earlier this week was, for me, the final straw

The UK is officially broke

The only solution the UK government has to offer is a small reduction in tax on discretionary consumption. A cynical incentive to encourage a few more people to buy just a little bit more imported shit to stick on the final bill

Even using the most optimistic figures, our government has admitted that the country will be driven deeper and deeper into debt until at least 2015

The banksters have won

Again

The reaping will begin shortly

What a lot of people don't comprehend is that the really big fortunes are made not in economically good times but in the immediate aftermath of economically awful times

As mentioned previously, the heavily promoted ideas of the likes of Klein and Taleb support the fairy tale that 'Disaster Capitalism' and the exploitation of completely unexpected financial catastrophes is in some way a new idea

That's a lie

The truth is that these kind of events are totally predictable, often deliberately engineered. and carpetbagging is as old as the hills




...though the concept of people funding their own serfdom, by thoughtfully stuffing their future overlords' carpetbags full of 'bail-out' cash, is a nice new touch

Ordinary UK citizens will now endure decades of debt slavery, where increasingly huge slabs of national income are siphoned off, directly and indirectly, in interest payments

At some point the government will attempt to reduce the value of debt with a Weimar/ Zimbabwe style printing frenzy...

That's assuming the existing system actually holds up

Otherwise things could get very interesting indeed

The New Look UK Treasury Team c. 2012

On the bright side, British police will be packing 10,000 shiny new tasers real soon now and the roll-out of the new ID/ Ration/ Travel Permit/ Record of Personal Indebtedness Card is well on its way.

The UK will start looking and feeling just a teensy wee bit like a naturally-moated, open prison

Snake Plissken - reportedly thinking about settling down in SE London

There are paths we can follow to avoid the oncoming mess but no-one in mainstream media and politics, and depressingly few in the alternative media are talking about them

Of course, these are just the worst fears of a serial pessimist

For everyone else, here's a picture of a puppy...



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Beat the impending Economic Apocalypse with 2.5% off take-away pizza (for a limited time only)

You don't have to look very hard to see that British retailers are expecting a pretty awful Consumptionmas season this year

Every day both my physical and virtual mailboxes are stuffed full of 'We miss you. Here's a 5%/ 10%/ £5 off money voucher which expires in a month's time. Please do some shopping. Please. Because otherwise we're totally fucked. Go on. Please....'

(The reason why so many retailers are potentially fucked is that they have colossal debt obligations, either directly in the form of loan charges or indirectly through rent, and need to clear a certain amount of money every month just to keep their bankers happy. For every £1 spent on British retail a large chunk goes straight to the banks, a similar chunk goes to the government (and then to the banks) and the teensy weensy bit left over goes to some Shanghai sweatshop owner. This is how vibrant, sustainable, 21st century economies work apparently)

The UK government also appears to be about to get in on the act

When faced with the prospect of the greatest economic recession in a lifetime, the powers that be could have chosen to pour state-funded investment into great public works which would create real jobs and benefit future generations - solar powered personal jetpacks, a national maglev train network, fusion powered hydroponic food for all - or it could take the braver and more farsighted decision to spank all that money on some discount vouchers on imported crap instead

I'm delighted to say that it looks like the imported crap is going to win


According to the latest news from the Ministry of Official Speculation...


VAT cut mooted for recovery plan

A VAT cut could be at the centre of the pre-Budget report on Monday, according to widespread speculation.

Reports suggest VAT could drop by 2.5% to 15% as part of Alistair Darling's plan to revive the flagging economy.

My latest money off voucher from ebay - 2.5% more than on offer from UK plc but it expires a little sooner

Readers of Robert 'He is become Pure News' Peston's blog will already be aware that major VAT changes are in the works, as yesterday he wrote...

"For the sake of transparency I should say that I don't know that there will be a VAT rise (after a temporary VAT reduction)"

Robert Peston

Robert is indeed transparent

in the words of one adoring commentator...

"From that I think we can all read that Alistair Darling has already given you the lowdown on what he's planning and that this too shall come I to pass. Much like your blog a month or two ago where you said "This may be hubris, but I think the way to solve the problem would be for the Government to take large stakes in banks and be paid a very high rate of interest". And what do you know, a few days later this is what was announced. Not foresight on your part - more like insider information. This blog seems to be the Government's new leak machine of choice, where future policy decisions are "suggested" by Robert to sound out opinion and get people used to the idea. Robert does this for reasons of hubris, as he can then claim he had the idea first, even though it's no such thing."


Personally, it seems only fair that the business editor of the State Broadcasting Company should serve such a valuable public function

The fact that the UK government is about to evaporate billions of pounds (which will be added to the tab owed to the banksters) on a stunt that is so obviously destined to fail is, however, just a tad perplexing

If the current government isn't engaged in the final stages of a deliberate plan to destroy the UK economy that started way back in the reign of Thatchler, it continues to do a fucking good impression of one

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Compulsory Redundancy

Hot off the Press from Conspiraloon Alliance Central...

Mr Rauf before he was given his jotters

'Suspected' terrorist and 'alleged matermind' Rashid Rauf is 'reported' to have been killed by 'a suspected United States drone', the guardian cautiously informs us.

A great blow in the war on terror or merely a lightening of the load on our over burdened public purse?

Which ever it is, it seems we will now never know the shocking, chilling truth behind the transatlantic liquid bombing plot which our government has so singularly failed to prove existed.

It is hard for the civilised human mind to encompass this man's awesome potential for destruction. What kind of evil genius could carry out such an enterprise? What crazy plans was he hatching as he wandered in and out of police custody?

It is our tragedy that a monster of his talents worked for our enemies.

If only we had people like that on our side!

Winter Patriot fills in the details of the West Midlands pimpernel far better than we, or the hated mainstream media, ever could.

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Iceland, not funny at all...

...and whilst on the subject of the attractions of alcohol-induced oblivion in troubled times, there's an 1/2 hour BBC podcast entitled 'Iceland after the Crash' which is worth a spin for anyone who fancies a taste of what might be in store for certain countries considerably larger than Iceland (direct link to the MP3 here - it'll probably only stay live for a few days)

see also a worthwhile, but curiously titled, piece in the Times-

'Britain is in no position to laugh at Iceland’s problems'

Personally, I haven't encountered that many people having a laugh at the economic implosion of an entire nation. Maybe I don't mix with the right kind of people. Most of the people I speak with are afflicted, to one extent or another, with a niggling sense that something similar might be headed our way sooner rather than later

I can't resist a link to this though




Reading around a bit I'm also detecting that Icelanders are starting to realise that their country didn't implode because of, outrageous as it was, the UK government's use of anti-terror legislation to seize assets but because Icelanders and corrupt Icelandic institutions spunked an awful lot of money they had not earned up against the wall. That particular distractive deceit did, however, work a treat for a useful amount of time

- and I haven't half ploughed through a colossal amount of bollocks written by very Net savvy, very intelligent, very articulate Icelanders who persisted in deluding themselves that the recent economic boom was somehow based on something that wasn't insane

Of course, none of this could ever happen again anywhere else

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