China Crisis 11/17/2010
 
David Cameron's recent trip to China was hailed as an economic success for the country. But in reality has the PM endorsed barbaric farming practices and cost us jobs in
our high tech industries?

David Cameron’s recent trip to China is likely to leave the whole country feeling jet lagged. For the ordinary people of England, on the whole, this so called trip of ‘diplomacy to promote business’, has been a complete waste of time. Taking aside the Rolls-Royce engine deal with China Eastern (which because of an existing business relationship was in all likelihood going to go ahead anyway) Cameron has let down the people of England.

In reality, thanks to the destruction of our manufacturing industry, England does not make many of the goods China or any developing countries are interested in. If China requires machine tools or engineering expertise, they look to Germany or Japan. If they require wines, perfume or agricultural know how they very often look to France. The truth of the matter is England sells less to China than Italy. That is the fact and Cameron’s trip has done nothing to reverse that trend.

Let us look at the majority of people accompanying the Prime Minister on this trip. These consisted of CEO’s of blue chip companies that already have regional bases across China.  So why, when we should be promoting what industry and products we have left, are representatives from blue chip companies that already have a foot in China, talking to the Chinese?

It has often been said that we are now a service industry economy, and that the new technologies will be our future. The bottom of the pecking order in service industry work is call centre staff. Look how many call centre jobs have been lost to other countries where workers are paid a pittance and whose record on human rights is appalling. Could we now see more English based jobs in the IT industry being lost to China? Has this trip oiled the wheels of further jobs to be lost to the lands of cheap labour? The coming years and the unemployment figures will tell.

The Prime Minister's comments regarding students tuition fees should not go unnoticed either. When students in England face a lifetime of debt, Cameron was making remarks that overseas students were paying too much to attend our universities. Such remarks must dent the aspirations of young people in England, as they come from a Prime Minister that clearly has shown little concern for the aspirations of young people in England outside of Eton and Harrow.

One deal which it is believed Cameron did broker was the export of live breeding pigs to China.  It is well documented that China has horrendous unregulated farming methods, and this deal basically means live animals are going to be shipped half way round the world to be tortured. The main benefactors of this deal will not be the small farmers of England, but large industrialised intensive farms which in some cases do not even employ local labour!

Through investment in compassionate farming methods England can produce the finest meat products in the world - and sell these products to the world. When English meat is instantly associated with being compassionately reared our meat sales and our farming industry will benefit.  That is forward thinking, which seems completely out of tune with the Prime Minister’s ‘profit for the few’ philosophy.

So there we have David Cameron’s trip of diplomacy to promote business in a nutshell. A lot of taxpayers  money spent  to sign a deal on aircraft engines and servicing which would possibly have gone ahead anyway, to send pigs to be tortured and suffer agonising deaths and to possibly allow even more jobs to be lost abroad. This is not just the government’s way of thinking; unfortunately the whole of mainstream politics is tainted with this line of thought, and it has been happening for years. What is needed is a new brand of politics, a new political system and a new, free radical England.
Add Comment
 
 
CABLE - CONFUSED BY CAPITALISM & PERPLEXED BY PROTECTIONISM
Business Secretary Vince Cable recently announced the British government's  latest crazy privatisation, with their intention to sell off the Royal Mail – presumably, to people with enough money to buy it – ermm, that would be “capitalists”, right? 

He then voices his fears about the “worst scenario” of protectionism, and its possible threat to the steady march of “globalisation”. Now, who benefits from globalisation?

Is it the English workers who lose their jobs to cheaper labour abroad, or:

The architects of globalisation - the global capitalists - moving their money from country to country in the search for ever greater profits? Again, we get the answer: “capitalists”.

Then incredibly, at the Lib-Dem conference in Liverpool, he makes a speech to the party faithful, rightly criticizing capitalism, which contains the following statement:

“Capitalism takes no prisoners, and it kills competition where it can.”

So, why is he so hell bent on selling the Royal Mail off, to the only people who can afford it – capitalists? His Royal Mail privatisation and protectionist/globalisation statements totally conflict with this one. Ironically, we agree with Vince on the quote from conference, perhaps he is becoming an English Radical in his old age!

Going back to the “bogeyman” of protectionism, Cable's real fear is what lies underneath it – a growing awareness by the English that we should stop propping up the rest of Britain and the EU, and look after our own interests. As a British MP, an EU supporter, and the author of several works about global governance, he is firmly in the camp of “big government”, or rule by unaccountable elites. He realises the current economic crisis is making the English question the popular fallacy that being part of a larger unit (Britain, and the EU) is somehow beneficial, when in fact it is expensive and undemocratic.  

To add insult to irony, Vince Cable is himself in a “protected” job, and will be for at least another four years. Even if he should lose his seat at the next election, he will no doubt walk straight into another cushy job within government - or that rest home for failed politicians, the EU! The redundant workers at the TATA-owned Corus steel plant in Middlesborough won't be offered that kind of a deal, nor will the production staff at Cadbury, taken over by multinational Kraft, as their work is “globalised” (moved abroad). So who the hell is he, to lecture us, about protectionism? 

The key part of the word “protectionism” is protect. As an overpopulated territory that cannot feed itself, England relies on making and selling enough goods to raise the money needed to import essentials that we cannot produce enough of ourselves. If this revenue stream dries up, we cannot afford to live without borrowing – which is exactly where we find ourselves today, thanks to the short sighted policies of successive Tory and Labour governments since 1945. One wonders how much of our present malaise was just bad luck and poor planning, and how much was deliberate.

As Vince Cable says, capitalism takes no prisoners and kills the competition where it can – it wages war, and in wars the weak get crushed. In a war, you would protect your ports, your airfields, your weapons factories: to an English Radical, there is no difference between physically defending your country, and defending the wealth producing industries that reside within it. In our eyes, protectionism equals patriotism. As well as sending troops to die needlessly in Afghanistan, we are currently fighting another war nearer home – against mass unemployment and the national debt that goes with it, and sadly we are losing that struggle thanks to successive British governments’ poor, or even criminal, leadership.

It is no coincidence that those nations with real wealth are the ones staying out of wars and generating revenue through strong manufacturing output – Germany in the West, and China in the East who are, sensibly, very protectionist. Contrast their current positions with that of America and Britain – both, in their day, the largest manufacturers in the world, but now financially ravaged by years of war, hugely in debt and scarred with industrial wastelands - witness the ghost town that is now Detroit, once the thriving home of the American car industry, or the English north east where much of our coal and steel was produced: Once-wealthy California, reduced to paying its public sector workers with IOU’s: the English shipyards, virtually all gone. 

The globalist economics so beloved by Cable encourages key manufacturing to be outsourced abroad, as it is cheaper to pay grateful peasants in far off lands to churn goods out at lower cost, meaning more profit for the multinationals that sell them: only trouble is, so many of the product's target consumers in the West have lost their jobs through globalisation - via outsourcing - they can no longer afford to buy them.  

Like a giant parasite, global capitalism has sucked its original hosts – Britain, then America - dry, and is moving eastwards looking for fresh nations on which to feed, in its quest for profits. These nations will welcome the beast at first, their people will feel prosperous and their lives will improve for a while: but eventually the lure of even fatter profits in the country next door will cause the global capitalists to withdraw and invest there instead. The money will be pulled out of perfectly viable businesses and moved to yet another poor country in order to exploit the people there, and the original host nation, unable to compete with the new kids on the block and starved of vital capital, will suffer a slow death, just as others have before them. 

There is no quick fix to this problem: but people must wake up and be aware of it, and action taken. An immediate protectionist measure we should all adopt is quite easy to do – where an English made product exists, buy it! It may be cheaper to buy a foreign product, but the government will have that saving off you in tax at some point, as a down payment for an English worker’s dole.

England needs more self sufficiency and fewer imports: an English Radical government would adopt protectionism by imposing higher taxes on foreign made goods, but offer foreign manufacturers the chance to avoid these taxes if they produce in England. They win by undercutting their rivals, and we win by creating jobs.

But until then, defy Vince and the globalists, and support protectionism – please buy English, and help stop your own jobs being “globalised”!!
Add Comment
 
THE ENEMY WITHIN 07/30/2010
 
Picture
When people consider ‘an enemy within’ many think of Islamic extremists that seek to abolish traditional English or Christian customs and impose Sharia law. This is true, such people do pose a very serious threat to English culture. Others may think of left wing or right wing extremists, or those that exploit the benefits and taxation system. To some such people also pose a serious threat to the wellbeing of the country. However there exists another enemy within that is a threat to us all. In appearance you would think this enemy was a pillar of society and an almost perfect Englishman or woman. You would think these people were successful business people, helping to turn the wheels of English industry and creating employment for English citizens. However, you could not be further from the truth and such appearances are very deceptive.

This respectable looking ‘enemy within’ cares very little for England or the people of England. What they do care about is the size of their bank balance. To increase the size of their bank balance they will employ the cheapest available labour who will tolerate the poorest conditions. In most cases this will not be workers of English culture or those that have adapted to English culture, it will be economic migrant labour and in some circumstances even illegal immigrants.

It can be argued that this still helps to keep the wheels of English industry turning, albeit with English workers paying the price. However another practice of this enemy within is to actually relocate whole companies overseas or start businesses in the lands of cheap labour. This has no benefit to the English economy whatsoever. Such practices not only deny the workers of England employment it is virtually taking food out of their mouths. These people are far from pillars of society, they are nothing less than economic traitors.

The English Radical vision is for business and industry to work for the greater good of the country and its people. It should provide economic prosperity for the nation and employment, decent wages and conditions for workers. It should be a fair deal all round. In reality, what we have in many circumstances is the exact opposite with unscrupulous economic traitors ripping off the people and the country. Yet the most annoying thing about this is the fact successive Labour and Tory governments have allowed and encouraged this to happen. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the present Con-Dem coalition seem set to continue this practice. Read between the lines of David Cameron’s recent visit to India and you will see he has helped to oil the wheels of Indian industry, whilst merely wiping those of England with an oily rag.

In this current uneven economic playing field, what chance of long term success has any decent business person that wishes to establish a company in England, employ local labour and offer decent pay and conditions? What chance has the ordinary honest working man or woman when he or she is forced to compete against cheap overseas labour? The capitalist system allows companies to relocate abroad or drive wages and conditions down to obtain further profits.  Even if this causes unemployment and social hardships, the ordinary working man and woman or decent patriotic business person will bear the cost to satisfy the profit margins of the economic traitors.

There needs to be a radical approach in order to rectify this situation. However we must never forget what we are dealing with is ‘economic traitors’ who care little for our country and its people. In a new, radical England measures would be introduced to prevent the exodus of companies to ‘the lands of cheap labour’. If a company wishes to relocate it would have to pay its workers a lump sum equivalent to one years pay (on top of any redundancies). This would provide a financial cushion for the workforce and give them the available finance to start their own business if they wish. The sale of the companies premises would be offered first to the workforce at a substantially reduced rate, should they wish to take over and run the business as a co-operative. Favourable financial conditions and training would be made available for newly established co-operatives in a bid to help them succeed. Finally the relocated company would find that it faces stiff import controls of its products into England. Ultimately, an ideal solution would be if someone wishes to relocate their business abroad, let them also surrender their English passport, emigrate to the lands of cheap labour themselves and become a national of that country. England does not need economic traitors.

Economically we also need to address the large multi-national concerns that dominate business and drive smaller companies to the wall. The tide needs to be turned to favour smaller, local and regionalised economies rather than those dictated to us by the multi-nationals. But we have to make sure our future, the smaller businesses of England, stay in England and provide employment for local workforces. England has to deal with its enemies within. If we fail to deal with the economic enemies within our shores we shall continue to fail. We cannot afford decade after decade of governments allowing multi-nationals to run our country and our smaller businesses to relocate abroad. There needs to be a radical solution which involves education, training and economic protectionism.  The English Radical Alliance is the only party that is brave enough to offer that solution.




+ click here to return to home page & menu +
 
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
The English Radicals, whilst being concerned with politics, also keep watch on other matters, and an issue that hits a raw nerve with us is the situation that two of the biggest clubs in the English Premier league – Manchester United and Liverpool – find themselves in: namely, being foreign owned and in debt because of it. The predicament of these clubs is a microcosm of English business as a whole, so we thought it worthwhile to highlight the similarities, and offer radical solutions.

THE PROBLEM
Both clubs were financially solvent before their respective takeovers, in fact Manchester United was a successful PLC listed on the London Stock Exchange before the £800 million sell off to the Glazer family. The lure of big profits was too much for corporate America to resist, and so bought both clubs out with high interest loans from big city institutions like JP Morgan and the Rothschilds (United) and in the case of Liverpool, RBS. RBS have form when it comes to doing the dirty on English businesses: They were bailed out by English taxpayers in 2008, but shortly after went on to fund the American Kraft takeover of profitable English firm, Cadbury, and will be shifting production to eastern Europe, destroying English jobs. Thanks, RBS. 

What is interesting is the defiance shown by the two sets of fans, and the way they are choosing to show it. Many United fans now wear the green and gold of Newton Heath (the amateur team that went on to become United), rather than the red and white associated with the modern team. Not only is this a very visible signal to the world of their rebellion, it also deprives the Glazers of valuable merchandise revenue, thus negating one of the reasons for buying the club in the first place.

Some Liverpool supporters have formed the “Spirit of Shankly” group, who are very vociferous in their opposition to the current owners, Hicks and Gillette. S.O.S. have recently proposed to start a credit union, with the eventual intention of raising sufficient funds to buy out the club from the present owners.

THE SOLUTION
Can there really be any argument now, that a team’s loyal fans would not be better custodians than greedy, clueless American businessmen? Both clubs have massive fan bases the world over, so as many fans as possible should be given the chance to become shareholders and part owners, not the corporations or business men. United were once owned by shareholders, there is no reason why they, or Liverpool, could not be again. True fans would not sell their shares every time a Cup win boosted the share price, nor would they sell if the share price dropped on a bad league run. This means each club would have solid, reliable, and most importantly debt free, funding in place. 

Never again must a profitable English club - or any profitable English business like Cadbury's for that matter - be driven into debt to satisfy the money lust of inter- national financiers or foreign interests. Ensuring that club ownership is spread over as wide a group as possible (the fans), is Distributism in action, and acts as a safeguard against speculators, who merely wish to buy and sell shares for short term financial gain.  

THE PRACTICE
Unlike socialists, we believe in widespread share ownership – businesses need capital to make profits, and profitable companies provide dividend income for shareholders, a win/win situation for both parties. But in the modern world of electronic trading, shares are bought and sold in a heartbeat by people with no real interest or connection to a company, but purely because of an insider tip, or a favourable chart pattern. This perverts the whole principle of share ownership from one of investment, to one of speculation. There has to be a step back from the present system – you should still be able to buy and sell shares - just not at light speed. And, if people had to have actual physical ownership of a share certificate before they could sell it, this would take much of the crazy “day trader/short seller/speculator” mentality out of the markets. 

The practice of allowing fans to buy into their club, is one that should be extended to all areas of English commerce: all employees of English PLC's should by law have access to “sharesave” schemes, or opt to be given shares in lieu of payment, with income tax to be paid only on the sale of said shares. And like the football fans, it is unlikely that people with own the company they work for will be tempted to sell to outsiders, for fear of takeover.

The English Radical Alliance would fight for this right, because it gradually transfers ownership back to the employees, protecting their company from greedy predators whilst giving them a greater say in how their company is run. Here's a thought to leave you with: if BA was wholly employee owned - a co-operative - they would not need Willie Walsh at £180,000 a year to “streamline” the business, and the cabin crew would probably not be on strike – why would you strike, if you were effectively self employed? The Distributist policy of employee ownership cuts out the capitalist “profit at all costs” money lenders, and the need for militant trade unionism. Doesn't that sound better than the present system?


+ click here to return to home page & menu +
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
English Radicals are disgusted by the actions of the two sides in the BA dispute: Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, grins like a Cheshire cat as he contemplates the freehand he will get to sack and bully his workforce following the Unite union’s decision to go on strike; while for their part, Unite leaders are less interested in the future for their members than they are about dictating the future of the Labour party. Both sides in this dispute have clear goals: Walsh was brought in to BA to prune its workforce and turn it into a flying version of Netto. Whilst the Unite leaders want rid of the New Labour leadership and beating up the flying public on the eve of a General Election was the obvious weapon of choice.  Sadly, it is the BA workforce, bullied by the management and by the union, and the general public who want to fly, who are the innocent victims of this Left versus Right industrial battle.

Many people have commented on how this ‘Spring of Discontent’ is like some throwback to the 1980s and, in some ways, they are right. Like then there are industrial leaders who want to shed jobs in a time of recession, regardless of the poverty and hardship this will cause for their workforce. And also, like then, the workforce was part of a trade union that had political motivations as its primary goal, rather than the welfare of its members. Sadly, this is always going to be the case when our businesses are part of global corporations and our unions are run by extremists. The BA workers have a strong argument; BA’s problems are not caused by the workforce but by the decisions made over recent years by its management, yet it is the workforce who will pay the price by losing their jobs, or by working longer hours for less money (and won’t that be a comfort for you when you’re half way across the Atlantic?). But, and it is a big but, being right doesn’t get you anywhere if you are badly led and badly advised. The miners were right in the 1980s, but they were lions who let themselves be led by a donkey called Arthur Scargill, a man more interested in bringing down a government than in protecting his members jobs. And so it is with Unite, they are led by men who want to bring down Gordon Brown and the New Labour leadership, even if that means losing the General Election and, therefore, allowing into power a party that would decimate the public and private sector workforce in order to maximise the profits of its global capitalist backers.

The sad fact is that the BA workforce should have given greater consideration to guerrilla action against BA management rather than taking on Walsh AND the public with a strike. They should also have examined the motives of their union leadership and not allowed themselves to be cannon fodder in the class warfare ambitions of a pair of Marxist losers like Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley. Crucially, the union leaders have failed to bring out the majority of their members and have left those on the picket line at the mercy of Willie Walsh’s axe. However, before the public blame the workforce for this strike, they should also examine the actions of Willie Walsh. He has deliberately set out to provoke a strike regardless of how this will affect the general public. He’s been clever. He knows that, with a General Election due, he will get the support of both major parties. Whilst, for their part, the travelling public will obviously support him (solidarity with a bullied workforce will be low on the priority list of a modern ‘me-first’ society). And so, after this strike, he will be unopposed when he sets out to decimate the workforce and trample on its working conditions.

English Radicals believe that companies such as BA would be better-off being owned by their workforce rather than by global corporations who can hire hit men like Walsh to duff up the workforce and make the customers lives difficult. Furthermore, co-operative businesses would not require the presence of obnoxious Marxist-led unions, whose sole reason to exist is to bring chaos and disorder to our lives. The BA strike is a primary example of how Capitalism and Socialism cause hardship and disruption to our society, there has to be a better way of doing things.

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
In the same week that the British government announced they are to raise the retirement age from 65 to 66 in 2024, and again in 2034 to 67, a newly released survey stated that a majority of over 50's interviewed want to carry on working past the present retirement age. All well and good, until you dig a little deeper and find out the survey of 1500 people was carried out by the Equality and Human Rights Commission – a government funded Quango, in the pockets of said government! What an amazing coincidence – the very week the government tells us we must work until we drop, up pops a government funded survey which says: “yes, the peasants think so, too!” 

What the headline does not tell you, is that many of those interviewed cannot afford to retire, due to economic circumstances. By all means, scrap the law which says you MUST retire at 65: but do not keep moving the state pension goalposts, forcing workers to slave into their twilight years when eight million adults in Britain  - that’s one in five – are, for whatever reason, NOT in work – or “economically inactive”. The English Radicals believe that our forebears fought too long and hard for a reasonable retirement age, to let this herd of political imbeciles take it from us. We are having to work longer because they are squandering our pension fund on foreign wars, propping up the EU, and paying eight million people to sit at home, while my 69 year old father in law still gets up at four a.m. five days a week, to work in a supermarket bakery. 

Projected income tax revenue for 2010 (£140 billion) is now less than the amount required to fund benefit payments (£165 billion), according to figures taken from the Daily Telegraph, 26/06/09. If we still had a manufacturing industry, a coal mining industry, and the various other businesses lost that used to provide employment before slave wage economies swamped our markets with cheap goods, and put our people out of work, those revenue and spending figures would be reversed.

It seems to us that New Labour have taken the books “Animal Farm” and “1984” as instruction manuals, instead of the warnings our radical forerunner George Orwell intended them to be. In Animal Farm, the Pigs are quite happy for the other animals to work themselves to death, as long as they and their supporters can keep their own pampered lifestyles. When elderly men and women are having to work past 65, and a million able bodied young NEETS (Not in Employment, Education or Training) are sat idle either through lack of work or incentive, then something is very wrong. 

As for 1984? The UK has more CCTV cameras per head of population than anywhere else in the world.  You can be imprisoned for 42 days without even being charged. You face fines for your wheely bin lid not being closed. Motorists fined for blowing their nose while stationary in traffic jams. Council officials can enter your home without a warrant. Your children monitored at school for racist or homophobic remarks. You now cannot legally photograph a policeman or government building. British police forces are looking to buy the same robot spy planes as used by the CIA in Afghanistan to attack tribal wedding parties – sorry, the Taliban. England, a free country? Not until we chase these Piggies off the Farm, it ain't!

click here to return to the home page & website menu
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
In the depths of the worst recession for decades (thanks, Gordon!), a retail company – one of the hardest hit sectors of all – recently announced its employees are set to share a £140 million bonus pot, equivalent to eight weeks pay each, and are set to announce strong full year results. What is the name of this remarkable company that has managed to make money in such difficult conditions, when other retailers are going under? The John Lewis Partnership.

The unusual thing about this company? It is a workers co-operative. All 68,000 staff are motivated to work well and efficiently, knowing their performance and ideas will have a direct result on John Lewis profits, and with it their own bonus payments. This is what capitalism should be all about – workers owning the company they work for, making and sharing the profits, rather than handing them over to remote share-holders who may pull out at any time and destroy the livelihoods of many people, if they get the chance of slightly more profit elsewhere.

Now, profit is a reasonable motive to invest money – without the profit motive, there is little point in starting a business in the first place. The problems arise when people who do not have a direct, intimate connection with the business are the ones who own it. The global capitalist elites would have us believe that their great wealth makes them the natural choice to own businesses – an “Officer” class, if you like -  while we should be content playing the part of cannon fodder in the war that is commerce.

It is high time the English people woke up and realised these “elites” and the “Free Market” (the option to close a factory in England and use slave labour in the Far East) will be the economic death of us. The only people who care about us, is us. 

The John Lewis model is surely the way forward in these difficult times: virtually any company would run more efficiently if the employees were the owners, actively implementing efficiencies and new ideas, unlike the present situation at shareholder owned businesses where the workforce merely turn up for work and perform like robots, doing only what they are told, and no more. There is no outlet for creativity in such an environment, which leads to frustration and apathy – not a good recipe for productivity, I think you'll agree. 

And imagine how different things would be at the Corus steelworks in Teeside, or the Cadbury plants around the country, if these enterprises were owned by the workers themselves, and could not be bought off like the original shareholders were? They would still be in business, making things, producing wealth for England, instead of wondering how long their redundancy pay will last. 

The English Radicals believe that global capitalism has failed England, we see in this country and elsewhere how production and wealth is shifting eastwards, leaving us without work and income: we also believe socialism is wrong, as State ownership of all property and means of production is a dictatorship, and ultimately doomed to collapse, even as it did in Russia. We ask people to consider Distributism, a system that promotes business ownership, not by the idle rich or the State, but by the workforce - as co-operatives. Staying with the rotating system of capitalism and socialism guarantees a bleak future either of poverty or slavery.

Don't we and our children all deserve better than that?

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU 
Add Comment
 
A FRIEND IN NEED 06/16/2010
 
Picture
On the Andrew Marr show on February 21st the Greek Prime Minister was interviewed about his country’s dire economic crisis. Towards the end of the interview Mr Marr asked the Greek PM if it is a good idea for the people of Britain to take their holidays in Greece, with its economic woes. The Greek PM of course replied ‘Yes’,  stating that Greece is ‘A friend in need’  and the people of Britain will receive a very warm welcome from the people of Greece.

The English Radical Alliance would like to inform the Greek Prime Minister, the EU, the media and Mr Marr, that England is also ‘A friend in need’.  The people of County Durham are ‘people in need’ following the loss of a big part of their local economy, with the closure of the Corus steel plant, a manufacturing plant with a reputation for producing quality steel that was known throughout the world.

The English Radical Alliance (ERA) would like to inform the Greek PM, the rest of the EU and in fact the rest of the world, should they wish to come to England for their holidays that they would receive a very warm welcome.  We are a people always willing to extend the hand of friendship and generosity.

England is a land of contrasts from the beaches of its coastal counties to the staggeringly beautiful mountains of Cumberland and Westmorland whose landscapes have inspired authors, poets and artists alike. From the moors of Devon and Cornwall to the Yorkshire Dales and the historic towns and cities of every English county, that has provided the world with some of its greatest historic events and people in history. From the Norfolk Broads, the Fens and the Somerset levels, where the wildlife and flora attract visitors from all over the world, to the Lake District’s breathtaking scenery that has inspired walkers and artists alike.  The architecture of England may not be as ancient as that of Greece, yet they are just as, if not more beautiful, with awe inspiring cathedrals, abbeys, castles, palaces, country houses, public buildings, and bridges, all built with the skills of artisans and beauty of design that can match anything found anywhere in the world.    

England needs investment, it needs tourism and it needs friends to support our economy and our tourist industry. Our guest houses, small hotels and self catering establishments have all faced hard times in the recent recession. When we speak in terms of industry, it is very easy to think simply in terms of manufacturing and ignore the significant contribution of our tourist industry. It is an industry that has been almost totally ignored by the main parties, and it is one where most of the minor parties never mention.

We in the English Radical Alliance understand the contribution tourism makes towards the English economy. We also understand many of our main tourist areas are also areas of high unemployment, low wages and high house prices, and this needs addressing. Capitalism has failed these areas. Socialism would simply offer greater centralisation and costly bureaucracy. Our decentralised Distributist policies would provide opportunities to local people and the autonomy to bring about necessary change.

The English Radical Alliance recognises England is a ‘Friend in need’ – but we also realise England has far too many enemies within, and most of these are in or likely to be in government!

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU


Picture
ENGLAND TO BE RULED BY ANOTHER FOREIGN LEADER
Another step towards the eradication of England has taken place with the election of Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the first President of the European Council. However to use a phrase from a well known cult sci-fi series 'It's an election but not as we know it'.

The fact that the Belgian PM was chosen by the European leaders, and, in particular, by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and not the people demonstrates the complete disregard the EU has for real democracy. This makes a mockery of what people fought and died for in the World War II, that being to ensure free speech and democracy in Europe and in the case of our brave service personnel the freedom of England.  Whichever way you look at it this is another nail in the coffin of England and democracy, something nazi Germany and the General's of the USSR would love to have acheived but failed.


The English Radical Alliance does not recognise Herman Van Rumpoy as President and reiterates its policy for withdrawal from the EU and all other alliances that work against the interests of the people of England. We believe in real democracy for our nation, which does not mean decisions being made by the EU, M.P's from other nations within the UK or by unelected quangos. England needs independence from such people and organisations and the decision making process transferred to the people of England. This would be real democracy and if Captain Kirk is reading this 'It is democracy as we know it'.

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
The Corus steel plant in Redcar on Teesside has become the latest casualty of corporate capitalism. Executives at Corus's owners, the Indian Tata corporation, confirmed that more than a century and a half of steel-making in the north-east of England will come to an end on Friday when the firm's Redcar blast furnace begins shutting down.

According to the Chief Executive at Corus,  Kirby Adams, the closure was a result of an Italian consortium refusing to honour a deal to buy the plant's steel! This poses the question of how much steel is currently imported into England. It is likely to be more than enough to keep the Redcar works open. Questions also have to be asked as whether closure of the plant and asset stripping had always been the intention of the multinational Tata corporation. With Tata’s intention to more than double steel production over the next three years its clear the workers in Redcar are simply sacrificial lambs on the altar of capitalism, with steel production likely move production elsewhere.

However the loss of an Italian order is not the main reason why the Redcar works are closing. It will make savings on its carbon allowances, allocated by the EU under its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). By ceasing to emit a potential six million tonnes of CO2 a year, Corus will benefit from carbon allowances which could soon, according to European Commission projections, be worth up to £600 million over the three years before current allocations expire. So much for the polluter paying the price. Once again the real price is being paid by the people.

Over 8000 more jobs on Teeside depend on the Redcar works, so its closure is going to have a huge impact on local communities. Economically the effect will be felt nationally as steel production is the measure of a nation’s manufacturing capacity, so once again a huge chunk of England’s manufacturing base is to be lost.

As English Radicals and distributists we condemn this closure and the way multinational companies have a stranglehold over much of the English economy. How can our country dig its way out of a recession when we are closing down vast segments of our manufacturing base and condemning thousands of workers to the dole queue? Why do we import steel of a lesser quality when we can produce the finest steel in the world here in our own country? Why can’t we make steel plants such as Redcar cleaner and greener using technicians here in England? Does it make common sense to allow livelihoods and industry to be lost and spend money on social security benefits rather than saving jobs on Teeside?

Our industries need to be wrestled from foreign and multinational ownership, so our economic destiny is in our own hands and not those of businessmen in India, China, Japan, and the USA etc. We need to impose strict import controls so our businesses do not face unfair competition from abroad. Last but not least we need to support our industry, with the government nationalising or purchasing a ‘golden share’ to ensure our industries survive. In the case of Redcar, after initial nationalisation, a partnership could be created between the government and workers which would eventually see the plant operate independently as a co-operative, possibly networking with other steel plants in England to ensure ALL survive.  This would make far greater sense than seeing many of the workforces surviving on government money through social security handouts for the foreseeable future. It would safeguard and create jobs as well as maintaining our manufacturing capacity. 

The ball is firmly in the government court. Do they wish to pay for the collapse of yet another English industry in the loss of jobs, social security payments and the effect on communities in the north east of England – or do they have the courage to invest in our industry and our people for the future. Over to you Gordon!

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU

Add Comment
 
 
Picture
The visit you have been dreading for months is taking place. Big Sam, from the farm across the water, is striding up the path towards your front door. He stops, and knocks roughly with his boot. With a heavy heart, you open the door to see what he wants. As if you didn't know. “Now see here, Brumville, I'm a-wanting to buy your ranch, and kick your family out, and I mean to have it. Trouble is, I ain't got no money. Know where I can borrow me some?”, he laughs. .

“Why, yeah!” comes a reply from your barn – the voice of your ranch hand. “You know the bank in the town – the one Mayor McJudas saved from collapse last year with our money? They're rolling in the stuff now, and they ain't proud who they lend to, either!”

Big Sam's face twists into a cheesy grin on hearing this news. He tips his hat to you, and says: “Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you suh, but I gotta go now, and talk to a man about money – be seein' ya! Hey, ranch hand! Let me buy you a beer when you get finished here!”

The above is a work of fiction. However..............

If there were any lingering doubt that the lunatics are running the asylum that is England, there can be none now, with the news that the British government is allowing American multinational Kraft to buy out Cadbury – a profitable English company with 6,000 employees in this country – with money borrowed from RBS, the Scottish bank rescued by Gordon Brown's Labour government with our taxes. In effect, the neighbours we helped in their time of need, are now happily stabbing us in the back by lending money to our competitors, who will use it to buy our confectionery industry, sack the English workers and outsource those jobs abroad.

Manchester United and Liverpool are also classic examples of global capitalism gone crazy – profitable English clubs with no debt to talk of, that were bought out by American businessmen with borrowed money, now in debt to the tune of hundreds of millions.

These examples illustrate everything that is wrong with our weak government and the system of global capitalism, that we in England are told is such a great thing. Great for whom? The bankers and deal makers stand to gain financially. Cadbury shareholders will gain financially, as will T-Rex lookalike Todd Stitzer, the American (what a coincidence!) CEO of Cadbury, who it is estimated will be paid off to the tune of £7 million and a fat pension pot. The 6,000 English Cadbury workers almost certainly face redundancy, their families and communities financial hardship.

Meanwhile, the English confectionery industry will join all the other English industries that have gone to the wall in recent years, because successive British governments have consistently refused to invoke protectionist measures – steel, coal, fishing, manufacturing – in the name of “Free Markets”. Business, like War, is an arena where playing fair and settling for second place will not get you a silver medal, it will get you destroyed - fighting dirty gets results. If you get cornered by a mugger who's waving a knife at you, are you going to shake his hand and wish him the best of luck, or are you going to pick up that broken bottle and even the odds?

The Free Market is all very well in principle, but when your national interest is threatened and foreign competitors are trying to destroy you, why shouldn't a your government step in and ban the sale of a company - and why shouldn’t you slap extra tax on imported goods?

Can you imagine the French government allowing this to happen? No? Then why are we?

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU
Picture
AFGHANISTAN - WINNING THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE
Why, when there is a world shortage of morphine, do Western forces in Afghanistan say they are destroying opium poppy crops?
Why would you destroy something so valuable?

Would it not make more sense to win the hearts and minds of the local tribesmen by BUYING their poppies off them for a good price, and converting it into morphine (a humanitarian move on two fronts, helping poor farmers AND providing the world's sick with more pain relief), rather than let the Taliban step in and pay growers a pittance, to convert into heroin, to fund their guerrilla war against the West?

Or, as some suspect, are the Western governments simply - er - confiscating, some of the poppy crop and telling the world they are destroying it? Are the Taliban the only ones who are funding their war effort with opium?

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU
Add Comment