Many UKIP policies_for_ people adopted by the Tory manifesto!

In My View - it's a copycat Tory manifesto


David Cameron pledged yesterday to deliver the 'good life' to hard-working Britons when he unveiled a radical Tory Manifesto, promising voters 'security at every stage of your life', only to find many of the Tory giveaways were in the original http://www.ukip.org/policies_for_people  published last year for UKIP's Conference held at Doncaster. 


UKIP policies proposed to abolish inheritance tax and increase personal allowance to £13,000, this is the minimum wage that incurs no tax. UKIP offers a better deal for those earning £42,285 to £55,000 with tax at 35p, thereafter the 40p rate is payable.  The conservatives apply the 40p from £50,000.


The Tory also adopted UKIP's policies on abolishing green taxes and charges; withdrawing subsidy for wind farms; scrapping Human Rights Act in favour of British bill of rights.  UKIP's policies went much further than David Cameron's offers, proposing to reoccupy the UK's vacant seat at the World Trade Organisation to continue trading with Europe as well as the rest of the world by exiting the EU and save £55million a day; UKIP will cut Foreign Aid by £9billions to spend on all the above pledges. 


The Tories have not yet determined what services and spending they will need to cut to fund these 'good life' promises.  It’s not easy to stand by these pledges to win back Tory voters under the authoritarian watchful eye of the EU, with George Osborne's final Budget based on keeping annual net migration well above 100,000, which already broke David Cameron’s promise of 2010 to keep net migration within “tens of thousands”. UKIP will be able to limit immigration by the point-system of entry without interference from the EU. 

Under the EU open border law, 187,370 Romanians and Bulgarians arrived for work in the UK in 2014 and were given National Insurance (NI) number, an increase of 576% up on the 27,700 figure used by the Coalition in January 2014 to justify EU free-movement.  The revelation by the Department for Work and Pensions that the Romanians and Bulgarians now make up a quarter of new NI numbers given to foreign workers, that is an outrageous number of nearly  a million extra workers in one year, being supported by the UK’s infrastructure; putting unsustainable strain on housing, transport, schools and the NHS.

It's the century’s most unfair competition for our under-privileged youths, the unemployed and the newly redundant by Mr. Osborne’s austerity measures on Police, Border and military forces and local Council workers up and down the country.  Most of our job-seekers have high overheads of rented homes or mortgage responsibilities and families of school-going and college age, who will face a grim future queuing for jobs against new migrants who are unafraid of sleeping rough like the Romanians in London’s Park Lane 18 months ago, who were sent back to Romania with free bus fares, but soon came back after a brief (paid for) holiday at their Romanian home.

This kind of scenario is lowering British standard and our lifestyle, and the UK Independence Party has a plethora of policies to bring this country back on course, firstly to exit the EU to limit immigration with a point-based entry system for migrants with sufficient English language for work, with an NHS-approved health insurance, a job offer and accommodation arranged.   After paying tax and NI for 5 years they will then be eligible for benefits and after ten years permanent residency will be granted.

By re-joining the World Trade Organisation we can continue our trade with Europe, but will have the freedom to trade globally with a vast number of fast developing countries without incurring EU penalties. With the saving of our annual fee of over £10 billion plus perks, expenses and pay for numerous MEPs, UKIP will kick start the economy  by increasing full-time minimum wage earnings to £13,000 before tax (personal allowance), and introduce a 35p income tax rate on £42,285 to £55,000, thereafter the 40p rate will be payable.

These savings plus cutting back £9 billion on Foreign Aid proposed by UKIP will ease our national debt as well as stop over-crowding hospitals and A&E and will give our own people a fair crack at housing and jobs.         

George Osborne’s final budget show the £23 billion surplus outlined in his Autumn Statement for 2019-20 is down by £7 billion. The growth forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility is at 2.3 to 2.4% per annum over the next five years, but our actual growth since 2010 has only averaged at 1.8% so far.  David Cameron knows that many things don’t add up.

George Osborne’s optimism knows no bound.  In his June 2010 Budget he said he would borrow just £37 billion in 2014-15, instead he is borrowing £91.3 billion this year and last year £86.3 billion loan was added to our spiralling national debt, nearly doubled since he took office despite many austerity measures that reduced essential services to dangerous levels, particularly in our police, border and vital Defence Programme, especially as we face more aggression all around us.

Many of the Tory giveaways were borrowed from UKIP’s policies, which were published since last year’s UKIP Doncaster Conference, such as the increase in Personal Allowance to £13,000, scrapping the Inheritance Tax and an extra £3 billion to NHS frontline services.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage is right to lead Britain’s fourth political party away from the costly EU whose 3,600 laws had hampered our prosperity and competitiveness. Our taxpayers are rightly fed up with all three main Parties’ blind submission to EU's uncontrolled migration law and the gravy train mentality in Brussels and Strasbourg, many voters from all walks of life and society can see the sensibility of UKIP policies to halt the rampant advance of immigrants, in such high number that can eventually destroy Britain’s heritage, culture and intrinsic value.

David Cameron seemed to be under great pressure facing up to even a second term.  His reluctance to face a debate with his oppositions revealed his sensitive personality to criticism and all the broken promises he had made rest heavy on his shoulder.  He could sense the people’s discontent in his poll rating, and knew full well that he would be powerless to change EU’s open border requirement, notably evident in the EU President’s response of “Mission Impossible” when he likened himself to Tom Cruise to reform the EU before referendum in 2017.

Weighing heaviest on his shoulders is George Osborne’s final Budget, presented on a wish (and a prayer) that the next Parliament would produce the hat-trick economy he so bravely forecasted, if the Tory Party is returned to power.

ANOTHER 39 DAYS TO THE GENERAL ELECTION

Jean Romsey

It’s no surprise to find David Cameron not considering a third term even if he were voted back in office in May.  It’s not easy to stand by George Osborne’s final Budget that’s cunningly constructed just to win back Tory voters, and is based on keeping annual net immigration well above 100,000, which mocks the PM’s promise made in 2010 to keep net migration within “tens of thousands”. He showed no sign of regret as he made new promises  to reform the EU and hold a referendum in 2017, fully aware that our membership of the EU is the root cause of so many hardship for lower income families, all the benefits are reaped by just 1% of the rich and MEPs. 

All three established Parties have no plans to exit the EU, knowing full well EU leaders are too inflexible to consider any reform, especially for Britain.  Most voters know how adamant the EU leaders are in keeping the UK under strict control with thousands of regulations and by-laws, about 75-80% of UK laws come from Brussels, restricting our global trade, closing hundreds of Post Offices; VAT, Fuel tax, policing, farming and open border immigration, are all controlled by the EU, leaving the PM time to squabble with Ed. 

This government told us only 27,700 arrived from Romania and Bulgaria at the beginning of last year, but they made no mention of the 187,370 who arrived later in 2014, an increase of 576%, all were given (NI) National Insurance number to register for work, state benefits and tax credits. The Department for Work and Pensions revealed that the Romanians and Bulgarians (215,070) accounted for a quarter of new NI numbers given to foreign migrants.  That's a whopping influx of nearly a million workers!


To add such high numbers of extra workers in one year to any nation is unsustainable; and together with their spouses and children this number would overwhelm any country, but in the confined space of UK's islands it's totally wrong for any government to punish their people with this kind of overcrowding.  That's an unprecedented strain on all our infrastructure!  Yet, the government blamed the chaos of overstretched A&E and hospital closure on the few elderly pensioners who have lost their beds in care homes. 


Many care homes were closed by the government without first replacing them, or putting in place a system (carers or home-care) prior to closing them down.  This Coalition government has failed to protect the NHS to deliver at the time of need, many residents incurred high parking fees for lengthy wait or being turned away. The PM pledging £2 billion during the chaos to fund the NHS does not solve the problem in an instant.  Sticking plaster on chaos never worked, more nurses and doctors had to be trained before the influx, in the same way that all essential services like police, army or border require training time to ensure the smooth running of the country. 


Surely the Home Office of this Coalition knew and expected this influx of migrants since Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, having experienced the exodus of Poles arriving in the UK, the government has had five years to be prepared or should have taken the EU to task for an unsustainable policy.  After all the UK pays dearly (£11.3 billion) for the privilege of our expensive membership.  There was no reason why the NHS was so over-stretched and running on a deficit of £500million, with doctors’ surgeries scheduling appointments for over a week or two. 


A million new workers, many speaking no English, must adversely impact on all other services like housing, schools, roads and transport, and placing an unfair competition for Britain's unemployed and those recently-redundant by the Chancellor’s austerity measures on police, prison, border, military and local council workers.

Britain is now the second most crowded country in Europe, with another six countries waiting to join the EU, Britain is a soft touch for all EU member states and it's not fair on our taxpayers and pensioners who have paid into the system, to be plundered by government and foreign migrants, robbing them of their birth right. 


The UK Independence Party is the only party with policies that can counteract the EU’s ambitious federalism.  UKIP members come from all walks of British industry and commerce, with intelligence to make UKIP policies work towards a Great Britain, regaining control of our borders, a sovereign country in our own right, making our own laws for our own people.
If you want to see change for the better, then VOTE for UKIP in May. 


To see the UK Independence Party's policies on Apprenticeship Qualification in education; reduction of national debt for our grandchildren; repairing the economy, starting with the increase of personal tax-free allowance to £13,000; reduce Foreign Aid by £9 billion; scrap wind farm and solar arrays subsidies; take back control of our agricultural and fishery policies by reinstating  British territorial waters; and many more on NHS and support for Defence and military care.  Visit: www.ukip.org/Policies_for_People  

Mrs. Jean Romsey 

Email: jromsey@yahoo.co.uk  

JUST 90 DAYS TO GENERAL ELECTION

                          

THE GENERAL ELECTION THIS MAY IS A MOST IMPORTANT EVENT!

VOTE FOR A PARTY THAT IS FOCUSED ON CHANGE AND PROSPERITY!

For many years Britain had maintained an open-door Border as required by the EUROPEAN UNION, and millions of migrants from EU Member-States have arrived to live and work in this country, their families have enjoyed the hospitality of our Health and Housing Services and free good schools in convivial environment.

There are six more countries waiting to become members of the EUROPEAN UNION, such as Turkey, Montenegro, etc.  With our housing, school and health services already stretched to breaking points, Britain can no longer afford to be a member of a Union that is so inflexible in their membership rules for work, business, and benefits; and their uncontrolled immigration law has greatly impinged on our citizens’ rights and freedom.

As a member, Britain paid the EU more than £8billions every year, which increased to £11.3billion last year, plus other penalties and levies such as the surprise £1.7billion extra, for the imperceptible growth in our economy.  It’s any body’s guess what we would have to pay in the future.  This huge payment has added to the austerity that impacted on the lowest-paid of our society, whilst financing the upkeep of a lavish lifestyle of EU leaders at Brussels and their new, impressive billion Euro HQ in Strasbourg. 
 

Our National debt today is a whopping £1.48 trillion (figures from the Office for National Statistics), a record 80.9% of GDP (gross domestic product), that means £60,000 per household, for which we pay a £billion each day just on interest.  Borrowing by this Coalition for the fiscal year from April to December 2014, was £86.3 billion, and the Chancellor is planning to borrow £91.3 billion this year, slightly better than the £153 billion borrowed by Labour in 2010. 
  

The Coalition has no idea how to stop our debt from spiralling monumentally. Their austerity measures only managed to reduce many essential services like police, border and defence to dangerous levels; causing the poor to depend on food banks and allowing the top 1% of the richest in our society to get indecently richer, owning more than half the Nation’s wealth.

As for the restructure of the NHS, six-figure salaries were paid to attract hundreds of ‘high calibre’ executives to improve the Health Service, only to find they managed to produce the most costly chaos the NHS has ever experienced. With no clear vision for people management or skills in organising care for the frail and elderly, they simply left them occupying beds that are the most valuable stock-in-trade of all hospitals and their A&E departments, which recently ground to a halt all around the country due to lack of sufficient beds. Those highly-paid executives were nowhere to be seen, leaving our Health Service sick and in ruin.

UKIP alone has the policies inspired by vision and focus to bring the UK back on course, by first regaining our Democracy from Brussels, whose thousands of new laws and regulations are causing Britain a lot of misery as well as financial loss.  Next, the focus is on repairing our economy.  The £11.3 billion we paid the EU last year would have trained hundreds of nurses and doctors to improve our NHS, and, by cutting back £9billion from our Foreign Aid each year, we could begin to reduce our National Debt.

At the General Election in May, we the people must take our duty seriously, by voting for UKIP, the only capable Party with policies to turn the UK economy around - not with higher taxation but with due diligence to review all legislation and regulations from the EU (they issued 3,600 new laws since 2010) and remove those which hamper British prosperity and our competitiveness.  Study their policies at: http://www.ukip.org/policies_for_people 

Join me in voting for UKIP and you will be helping to re-build a Great Nation, fit to bring up your children and grandchildren in the best way possible.  Let us work together to grow our economy, whether in business enterprise or manufacturing, in commerce or financial investment, in education or health.  It is time to get the country moving again towards a thriving and resourceful economy that sees great work ethics, good education and pride in achievement.

Let’s all help to put the GREAT back into BRITAIN!  Why not join UKIP at:  www.ukip.org  and vote for the United Kingdom Independence Party to regain our independence from the EUROPEAN UNION and make Britain a better place for the future. This is our only chance to make a fresh start, by working together with UKIP to eliminate wasteful and fraudulent practices that are holding us back from success and prosperity.

  

We all need to vote for UKIP on 7^th of May at the General Election and also at local and borough elections to change British politics for good.  With our monstrously huge National Debt, it's the only way to make a fresh start by getting back to basic British values. We cannot afford to let the Tories continue their spending beyond our means; we cannot afford more debts and more borrowing because we have already spent all our kids' inheritance.      

UKIP IS NOW A CONTENDER

ELECTION IN MAY 2015!

Nigel Farage - Leader of UKIP

There is much talk about the forthcoming General Election in just five months' time and having heard so much from the main Parties, I decided to take a look at what UKIP has to offer, under the leadership of Nigel Farage, and was pleasantly surprised by the seriousness of their policies and their conviction that British tax-payers' money is best spent at Home instead of being squandered on EU luxuries.  I am now convinced of UKIP's ability to take on the greatest challenge faced by any British political party since WW2.

Take a look at the UKIP website for yourselves at:  http://www.ukip.org/policies_for_people

See if you agree with my views, that this youngest Political Party will grow in stature, and will mature quickly to grab this big opportunity to show the Nation who they really are!  Fruitcakes or some sterner stuff with strength, endurance and great intelligence to take our country to prosperity.

There is a great need today to slim down government expenditure to repair the economy and to save Britain from paying £billions each week on interests alone for our insurmountable national debt, a debt created by Labour but doubled by the Conservative-Lib.Dem Coalition.  That leaves the only other Party - UKIP to take up the reins of government at next year's General Election.
What will a UKIP Government do for us?  Their answers are in their website:  Policies for People: To protect jobs and increase prosperity, which entails much more than the few I list below:

UKIP with their many sensible, down-to-earth candidates will never allow those austerity measures that make the rich richer, and the poor more dependent on Food Banks, nor would UKIP's sensible candidates let the upheaval of the bedroom tax cause so much heartache for re-locators.  Moving into a new home should always be a joyful event!

At the next General Election in May, we the people will be able to take part in the reparation, by voting for UKIP, the only Party sensible enough to turn the UK economy around - not by higher taxation but with due diligence to reviewing all legislation and the regulations from the EU (they issued 3,600 new laws since 2010) and remove those which hamper British prosperity and competitiveness.

To withdraw our membership from the EU will save us over £11 billion a year, and judging by the surprise £1.7 billion demanded from Britain for the recent imperceptible growth, it's any body's guess what price will be levied in the future!  On leaving the EU, UKIP would seek to re-occupy the UK's vacant seat at the World Trade Organisation to continue our 'most favoured nation' status in trade with the EU, under the WTO rules.

UKIP is totally focused on repairing this Nation's economy by abolishing the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and the Department for Energy and Climate Change; scrap subsidies for wind farms and solar arrays, but support a diverse energy market including coal, nuclear, shale gas, geo-thermal, tidal, solar, conventional gas and oil; scrapping green taxes and the costly unjustifiable HS2 project; and cutting the foreign aid budget by £9 billion a year.

With these savings, UKIP will be able to increase the Personal Allowance to a full-time minimum wage earning (approximately £13,500 by next election) and be able to introduce an income tax rate of 35p on £42,285 to £55,000, thereafter 40p rate becomes payable.  The Inheritance Tax will be abolished and a Treasury Commission will be set up to design a Turnover Tax, so big businesses will pay a tax proportionate to their UK turnover.

Take a moment if you would, to read about UKIP's aspiration for the British people's prosperity at:
http://www.ukip.org/policies_for_people and you will find the youngest political Party in the UK, whose manifesto will be crammed with fresh ideas, appealing to most British tax-payers looking for a way out of today's "spend your kids' inheritance" culture. It's refreshing to find a party not afraid to cut government spending but also keen to keep all the basic British values.  UKIP will make a lean, mean, and cost-effective government, worth at least one term of office, to bring our economy back from the brink.

Numerous policies are embraced by UKIP to counter any proposed cuts and for leaving the EU: such as reinstating British territorial waters, and requiring foreign trawlers to apply for and purchase fishing permits to fish British waters;  students from the EU will pay the same fee rates as International students; and businesses will be able to discriminate in favour of young British workers.

On the home front, UKIP will protect our Green Belt; planning and building regulations for Brownfield sites will be simplified as also for vacant commercial property.  VAT on old property renovation will be relaxed, and for the redevelopment of Brownfield sites, their new homes' first sale will be exempt from stamp duty.

To prioritize Education and Skills, UKIP will introduce an option for students to take an Apprenticeship Qualification instead of the four non-core GCSEs which can, if wished, be continued at A-Level.  Subject to academic performance UKIP will remove tuition fees for students taking approved degrees in science, medicine, technology, engineering, or mathematics on condition that they live, work and pay tax in the UK for at least five years after the completion of their degrees.  UKIP will scrap the target of 50% of school leavers going to university.

UKIP is adamant that NHS will be free at the point of delivery and need, but visitors and migrants, until they have paid NI for five years, must have NHS-approved Private Health Insurance as a condition of entry to the UK, saving £2 billion a year, £200 million of which will be allocated to hospital car parking.  And hurrah! UKIP will maintain the pensioner BUS PASS!  I am 75 and I certainly need mine!

In honouring the Military Covenant, UKIP will guarantee those who have served in the Armed Forces for more than 12 years, a job in the Police or Border Force, or Prison Service.  They will receive a Veterans' Service Card for after-service or mental health care.

UKIP seemed to have considered every important topic from Transport, Childcare and Welfare, Border control, Immigration, Culture, Law and Order, Democracy and Constitution, and more; the policies for their manifesto even include such items as making crime for non-payment of BBC Licence Fee to come under civil offences; and the law will be rigorously enforced against illegal 'culture' practices such as FGM, forced marriages, and so-called 'honour killings'; but recognising that the unifying British culture is open to anyone of whatever ethnic or religious background that identify with Britain and British values.

With so much on offer, UKIP certainly deserves our support for the opportunity to carry out those well-thought out proposals.  I am willing to give the devil his due, so why not also to UKIP? After all, the three main Parties have had their chance to prove themselves in the last three decades, and with the debt spiralling out of control, desperate measures are now called for, such as those proposed by UKIP.  I am in favour of giving UKIP a chance to use their practical and common sense approach, and with a lot more middle management and workers joining the UKIP's aspiration to prosper, they have a better chance to succeed than re-electing the Tory back to power to continue paying vast sums to the EU as well as perpetuating the merry-go-round fiasco of re-organising the Health Service that had benefitted only the retiring consultants rather the sick and the elderly.


Nigel Farage, sitting beside Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt at Question Time on BBC1, calmly let Russell Brand heckle him as "the Dude at the end of the table - a pound shop Enoch Powell, and we've got to watch him!"  I am afraid Russell Brand's ranting made a spectacle of himself and showed us what a level-headed leader is Nigel Farage, whose composure will take UKIP right up to the top to lead this country to true prosperity by simply being British.  

SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE!

MARCH AND APRIL WHISTLED AWAY...

For many people, who had been adversely affected by Britain's inclement weather that flooded thousands of homes and turned many business ventures into negative equity, damage costs are still rising as they rented and salvaged whatever they could save.  Costs to the Nation are into £millions; many are looking for ways to alleviate their burden; and others are trying to muster enough strength to re-build their lives or their livelihood, from scratch.  
Our thoughts are with you, wishing you success in all your efforts!

Hopefully, Government grants and aid, will speed up the repairs and compensation for those who have lost everything.   Many charities have set up food banks all around the country, giving a lifeline to the homeless, the unemployed and disabled, especially for the sick and elderly, whose health had been damaged by strong winds and disease-causing damp in their homes.  We wish you a speedy recovery and good humour to enjoy the best of our summer.

A bunch of brilliant colours

At last the weather is showing signs of warming up and drying out, and the countryside becoming more beautiful every day; the trees are greening and the flowers are brilliantly colourful, even the bluebells are a deep azure, the most vibrant violet blue I have seen in many years.


Roy and I braved the torrential rain to visit Alan and Jan Olden's bluebell fields this year, and we were duly rewarded with a delightful show of bluebells at their best, followed by a welcoming hot tea at their beautiful home, surrounded by various animal statues, carved by Alan's own fair hand, whenever one of their trees fell.  His next project has already presented itself by a tree, knocked down in the recent storm, asking to be turned into another piece of art.

Camellia and rhododendron bushes are bursting into shocking pink and mauve flowers, against verdant green woods and hedges.  Summer is indeed a gorgeous time of the year in Great Britain!  With longer daylight hours, many of us will be spending more time tending the gardens, eating alfresco and  working up an appetite for a BBQ meat fest.

Alicia and Irena came to lunch

We continue to enjoy local theatres, such as The Maskers, in their cosy, mini-stage in Shirley, or their open-air productions held previously at Mottisfont and Hamptworth House.  Our favourite local amateur group is The RAOD, performing at the Plaza theatre in Romsey, their dramas, comedies and musicals have entertained us for decades. Occasionally we venture up to London for a musical or a play in the West End, but the shows have to be really fantastic to entice us to travel to London.

Eating out is now becoming a favourite pastime, and finding new restaurants on our doorstep is always fun.  Most enjoyable of all is being with friends and eating together, whilst catching up on each other's news.  We often have coffee mornings at elevenses, or afternoon tea with friends at home, all very pleasant indeed.    

Amelie is lovely to talk to.

Our friends, Youzhi and Jerome's little Amelie is growing up into a most delightful, intelligent and bright young lady of under two years old.  She absorbs everything like a sponge, and is a gleeful mimic of sound, action, and any new words she hears, so lovely to talk to and to sing with, especially Nursery Rhymes!

Gordon's birthday at the Waldorf Hotel 

I had a most wonderful weekend in London, to celebrate our friend, Gordon's 79th birthday, when Genevieve generously treated us to a champagne dinner at the Waldorf Hotel, in Aldwych.  We started the day with a guided tour at the busy National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, on the works of several Impressionists.

 
Being Bank Holiday weekend, Trafalgar Square was teeming with visitors, entertained by groups of street actors, musicians and acrobatic acts. The walk up the Strand to the Aldwych brought back many happy memories of the London I knew in the 1960's, when working for the Birmingham Post and Mail on Fleet Street, I spent lots of carefree lunch hours, indulging in anything London had to offer: Mrs. Levi's deportment class, an hour of French conversation, music in the park, window shopping and delights of London pubs.

Those who know us well, will wonder why we had not made a trip abroad in the last two years. Google's Blogspot writing, as well as renewed interest in digital photography, and the desire to sort out hundreds of diaries that recorded our 25 years of travels, in conjunction with thousands of photographs taken in over 80 countries, that have kept us busy, enough to take time off from our love of gallivanting the globe, in search of pastures new.  It was time well-spent to rest and reflect, and take stock of our life.

Doors and Portals by Jean Romsey

I even found time to paint three pictures to exhibit at Romsey Art Group's Spring Exhibition, The 'Doors and Portals'  was inspired by a PhotoBook, 'Pushbikes and Portals' produced by Roy, from his photo collection.  I chose to collate the second PhotoBook, entitled: 'A Pictorial Peek into Roy and Jean's Life Together', with 26 pages of photographs selected from thousands, to feature the
many activities we shared with our friends and families, in the 42 years we've been together.  Quite a task!  But what a life!

These two PhotoBooks were gifted to us by our good friends, Youzhi and Jerome at Roy's birthday. It feels so good to be able to hold a book of memories in your hand, and flick through it at any time you like.  It's not the same clicking through folders in your computer, looking at masses of thumbnail images. Thanks to our friends, I am so happy with this gift of a Photobook - it's a great idea.

I shall catch up with you again in a few weeks with more news.

A HAPPY START TO THE NEW YEAR

NEW YEAR FIREWORKS FOLLOWED BY STORMS

New Year arrived with pomp and ceremony as the grand London fireworks vied with global sparklers throughout the night, under clear blue skies everywhere.  Alas! this brief respite was not a forerunner of good weather in the United Kingdom, as storms of heavy rainfall and 100 mph winds, vindicate our good wishes.


Our little kingdom of Britain had been battered by strong winds, rain and turbulent seas, continuously for two months, the wildest and windiest weather recorded in decades, a situation never faced before, in my 49 years of living in England.  There had been the occasional flooding here and there, when rainfall was exceptionally heavy, as in 2003 or 2007, but never had the ground saturation been so sodden for so long.

A mirage of tranquility

You would be forgiven to think these homes were built with exotic water features around them, but the serenity belies the turmoil faced by residents, imprisoned in their own home with no clean drinking water and no way to launder their clothes or flush their toilets.  Many had found their homes contaminated by sewage, and the flood water is posing health hazards to children and pets, if swallowed, as many areas had tested positive with fecal bacteria.

Unrelenting waves bashing Cornwall  

Everyday we hear reports of more disasters: rivers overflowing into flood plains; unprecedented flooding in towns and cities, like Winchester, Capital of Hampshire, being sandbagged to divert flood water from city centre businesses; uprooted trees landing on cars; rooftops lifting or borne away by high winds; railway lines crumbling under incessant rain and 100 mph wind swiping at everything in its path.

Paul Daniel and wife waded outdoors

Roads, bridges and river banks are collapsing under ferocious on-shore waves; electricity lines destroyed by storms are cutting off power to tens of thousands of homes, some of whom had been without any fuel since before Christmas and had to dispose of food languishing in fridges and freezers.  Many households had to abandon their flooded homes, inhabitable due to sewage seeping up the floorboards, or becoming inaccessible except by boats or wading through waist-high water levels.

Romsey bandstand reflected by flood

There is no sign what-so-ever of the flood water receding from our saturated landscape, as the Met office warned of more devastation on the way: wind gusting over 80 mph, with heavier downpour throughout the night and possibility of snow on some high ground.  Already Hambledon had been under water for 40 days and nights, Datchet near Windsor had been flooded since early January, and Jenny, Roy's sister, living in Romsey, was house-bound for a few days last month, due to flooding.

Firefighters ferrying victims

The Government is finally deploying the army to shore up flood defences up and down the country, joining forces with the fire fighters, volunteers, and hundreds of employees of the Environment Agency distributing sandbags and helping vulnerable homes to seal off flooding wherever possible.  The endurance and strength of our British flood victims deserve our admiration and full support from the Government for any help and funding required.

We wish them greater resilience in the face of so much atrocity dealt them by Nature, Global warming and Climate Change, and to a great extent, exacerbated by ill-conceived EU directives to our Environment Agency, not to dredge the many rivers that had, for centuries, been the lifeblood of Britain's infrastructure in carrying away glacial and rainwater to the sea, and supplying many counties the means for fishing, farming, irrigation, sport and navigation.

This is another example of EU blundering by autocratic officials, ensconced in their urban ivory-tower in Brussels, unfamiliar with Britain's climate and geology, and ignorant of the millennia of indigenous good practice in river management, that had balanced the usefulness of our waterways with a high degree of nature reserves required for British birds, fishery and game, that already proliferate in our green and pleasant land.

Too much tampering by too many over-paid and under-employed EU agencies from across the Channel, are destroying quality of British life that had evolved through diligent study of our own environment. Who could better administrate our rivers than our own local homegrown, resident landowners, farmers and businesses?  Just a small local environment agency in each county would surely be better than a massive, national one, located in London, but directed by distant EU mis-informed officials.

In spite of the atrocious weather, I wish you all a happy Chinese New Year of the Horse, giving you strength and sense of purpose in everything you do and whatever life throws at you.
Happy St. Valentine's Day!

I shall speak to you again soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

PEACE BE TO YOU AND TO ALL MANKIND  

     This year has come and gone in a blink, and yet so much had happened in the world around us and in our own environment, causing untold suffering of death, hunger, deprivation, loss, damage and flooding, that our hearts cry out for the afflicted, willing their troubles to soon pass them by.  Nature is more powerful than humankind, but Mankind must find a way to curb our greed and prejudice to live together peacefully, harmoniously without killing or harming each other.

     There was so much I had wanted to do, alas! achieved so little.  The inclement weather had not helped.  Even now as I write, many around the U.K. are suffering strong winds and flooding from heavy rainfalls that are playing havoc with homes and businesses. Our sympathies are with them at this difficult time as Christmas will not be kind to them this year.  May they find some solace after the storm, with good neighbours to comfort them and help them to a speedy recovery again.

                           WISHING EVERYONE A GOOD FESTIVE SEASON AND A
                               HEALTHY,  HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

Click on this link for THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY :http://causality.x10.mx/roy/  

Whose ancestor?

To enjoy more music and songs, go to: 
http://www.ptxofficial.com/music?page=music&album_id=10094"              

Well may you laugh!

Oh, la, la....

                                                              

It's time for me to go to bed before Santa Claus comes down the chimney with my presents.  Oh dear, we have no chimney here!

Not even a fireplace!

Speak to you again soon.