Ted Heath

HMRC are far more active than they ever were under Labour. They have less staff, make more use of technology and have directed their officers against fraud. Just as they should do.This as a result of the directives from HMG.

Bugger the EU. They have intruded on our country for too long. I believe the time is coming when we may well have to defend ourselves as we have so often in the past. The US is imploding, european countries turning increasingly to right wing political parties. Do not ever think that we can rely on others to defend us if we are under threat. The League of nations disintegrated, so could the UN and NATO. To defend ourselves we need to be able to manufacture arms, to do that we need a steel industry. This is above party politics and economic norms. I am a Tory. Nationalise the Steel industry now.

I am a Tory. I say nationalise the British Steel Industry. Impose tariffs on imported steel if necessary. Labour bankrupted us bailing out the banking industry, whats £365 million a year in the great scheme of things? We are shortly to go it alone when we come out of the EU, we need a strong steel industry if we are not to have to go cap in hand for a valuable resource. I am vehemently anti nationalization, but not in this case. Pass me my banner I am marching with the unions.

I knew a man who sold his business for £100million. I found out some years later that he had been stricken with bowel cancer but had responded to treatment and was well. On holiday I happened to run into him and over a drink we discussed his situation. I asked him when he found out about his illness, he told me that he received his notification the same week the £100m was paid into his bank account. I asked him how this felt and he told me "if you could have made the letter informing me I had cancer go away, I would have given you the £100m." A true life story about the real value of health and the value of money.

I am not aware of the nature of your condition, it is clearly very difficult to live with and I do hope you find either a cure or at least relief from your problems. Perhaps it would help to consider what you have done here, you have generated a discussion on the nature of dependency, of social welfare, and of how we judge the worth and effectiveness on individuals. Professor Hawkin, afflicted as he is by his vile disease, none the less contributes to our thinking and place in the universe, no one with a functioning brain could doubt his value. You are clearly an intelligent person who has challenged us to think and consider. Keep thinking, Keep writing. Thank you for challenging preconceptions. Most of all, Best Wishes.

From each according to his/her ability to each according to his/her need. This is often cited as a socialist ideal. Actually, as a Tory it is one I broadly subscribe to. It is when need is exaggerated or when contribution through tax or otherwise is avoided that we differ. Need does not mean desire. Help should be for the period it is needed not forever, unless the recipient is, for whatever reason, incapable of work or similar contribution to society. Then they should be supported. The citizen should seek to do what he can for the greater good of society, the citizen should not seek to benefit unfairly from the efforts of others. This it seems to me, is the difference between left and right in our country.

Impotence, like being unchained from a madman.

I have been rich and I have been poor, Rich is better. ---------- Post added 24-03-2016 at 14:48 ---------- Never eat yellow snow.

There is something else. Please allow for the passage of time and my recollection of what I was told so many years ago. The Police Officer who interviewed Prager told me that from his point of view Prager was difficult to get an admission from due to the fact that he was a committed believer in what he was doing. In my friends experience he was used to dealing with people who new what they were doing was wrong. He felt their was a definite difference. In those days interviews were not recorded and I do not believe Prager ever had a solicitor present. Therefore a great deal of pressure could be put on him, eventually he confessed, probably because the evidence was strong anyway and a deal as offered to him that, after the Police got what they wanted, the deal was withdrawn. In effect he was conned. Mrs Prager was implicated and always blamed her husband for their predicament. Thats my recollection.

Why bother with these countries anyway? Even before this situation they were awful, sanitation, dirty smelly money, stalking and ogling women, dodgy food, no booze, Kalashnokoffs wall to wall. The incessant caterwhauling from the minarets. Tenerife thats the place. Or Benidorm, or Blackpool.

I knew the Police Officer who dealt with her husband. He maintained a private file on them after conviction. If memory serves me correctly I think they parted shortly after release from prison, he stayed here, she went back to (I think) Slovakia. I saw an extract from an article and translation in a magazine called Hospadarsky (dont hold me to the correct spelling). The article was very complmentary, it stated that she was a serving army officer who had made huge sacrifices for her country. It mentioned medals she had been awarded, there was a picture of her with a government minister. I saw this about 20 years ago, my friend was a senior Police Officer who is long dead, I have no contact with his family so regret cannot assist in tracing the document. Sorry, but hope this helps.

She went to live in Eastern Europe after her husband died. I cant remember the town but its in Slovakia. She held the rank of Major in their armed services.

He used to work behind the bar at the Mulberry Tavern.

Yes, its not easy, when you inherit the basket case that we became under Labour, its not surprising that plans have to change. I wonder were we would be today if Gordon Brown and Tony (the war criminal) Blair had actually done their jobs right and protected our money? Just think how much money could have gone into the NHS, welfare and the Police. Instead you and the socialist fellow travelers seek to hand off responsibility for your own parties failures and criminality and attack those who are trying to rectify the situation.

You can lead the horse to water, you cant make it drink, the party has a majority of only 17, if sufficient of the one nationers on our side decide it it is unfair the government will have to back off. Personally, I think there is still plenty to save in the welfare budget, but there is also plenty to save elsewhere, OAPs have had an easy ride. So has the overseas aid budget. Radical thinking is necessary unless the NHS collapses under its own weight. The "mire" is not of their making, it is the creation of the Labour party, who bankrupted us.

What a load of tosh. Wath Folk Festival, Pitman Poets meeting at Concertina Club weekly, a number of other cultural activities that the area is well know for. The best curry house in South Yorkshire, excellent pub restaurants.Beautiful well looked after churches. Mexborough and surrounding towns and villages is fine. Dont believe all the above rubbish. ---------- Post added 18-03-2016 at 12:49 ---------- Are you any relation to Laurie Scothern? ex cop went to live and work in south west?

We do stay on our farms most of the time its just that when we need to move the stock to market so that you southern numpties can eat we need a road to do it on. Not helped by the fact that on your long weekends you don country apparel, come up here and wear the tracks down with your nordic skis and labradors kicking up the sludge and making the passes impassable. If you would allow us a tunnel we could do all this underground so you could continue to disport yourselves in the manner to which you have become accustomed on the ground above. I hope that if we could get the tunnel going we could keep going until we have created a huge hole under the whole of the south of England and then, once we were ready we could remove the chocks and the lot of you would disappear into it. Once you were gone we could then set about the jocks. I support the idea of dropping the rubble from the tunnel/hole on top of them. Remember, on your next ramble, the big black and white ones are cows, the smaller hairier white ones are sheep.

We do stay on our farms most of the time its just that when we need to move the stock to market so that you southern numpties can eat we need a road to do it on. Not helped by the fact that on your long weekends you don country apparel, come up here and wear the tracks down with your nordic skis and labradors kicking up the sludge and making the passes impassable. If you would allow us a tunnel we could do all this underground so you could continue to disport yourselves in the manner to which you have become accustomed on the ground above. I hope that if we could get the tunnel going we could keep going until we have created a huge hole under the whole of the south of England and then, once we were ready we could remove the chocks and the lot of you would disappear into it. Once you were gone we could then set about the jocks. I support the idea of dropping the rubble from the tunnel/hole on top of them. Remember, on your next ramble, the big black and white ones are cows, the smaller hairier white ones are sheep.

I agree, that is why it is so important to support the development of alternatives such as the Northern Powerhouse.

You are very selective in your years. Also there are lies damn lies and statistics. Are you seriously saying that the years where we went cap in hand to the IMF, when the country was paralised by union activity to the extent we were storing the dead in freezers because the gravediggers were on strike were preferable to the years under and after Thatcher? I have no memory of this golden age, nor has anyone else I know. ---------- Post added 17-03-2016 at 15:09 ---------- When I ran my business I did regular cash flow and other predictions. I believe most business people do the same. My predictions were usually correct for about a week. Then things happened, events occurred, **** hit the fan. This meant my predictions were sent askew. However, had I not done the predictions I would have had no plan, been unable to react positively to changing circumstances. Osborne is in exactly the same situation, he has no control over international or domestic events that can run a coach and horses through any plan. His Fiscal Rules may be broken, frankly I dont care, he is putting forward brave policies meant to drive down the disgraceful debt Labour left us with, he seems intent on developing the North, and making sure that the legacy our generation leaves to our children is not the burden they would need to shoulder should we adopt the mind numblingly stupid ones of the current opposition.

The Thatcher method was different, it had to be, out of control unions misrepresenting huge numbers of employees in heavy industry had the country in a spiralling decline. Due to what her government did the Unions were brought under control, the economy turned from the "sick man of Europe" to an economic powerhouse the envy of the developed world. Her policies were so successful that even the Labour party abandoned its outmoded and failed policies and continued her methods throughout the period Blair and brown were in power. More Trade unionists voted for Thatcher in all her election victories than voted for the alternatives. I know it is easy for the left to spout anti Thatcher rhetoric, but its all hot air. The fact is we are the fifth biggest economy in the world, have 31million in work, and have plenty of other positive figures. This is down to the start Thatcher gave us. You should be grateful.

In view of past experience I can easily see why you have come to this conclusion. I remember similar initiatives being discussed under Blair, it all came to nothing. I just hope that this government see the potential. Our financial services industry leads the world, there is no reason to suppose that will come under threat. I just dont understand why past governments havent seen the potential of developing advanced manufacturing and other industries in the north to compliment financial services in London. Our universities are world class in developing new products, Graphine for instance. We should be building the infrastructure that will allow our manufacturers to grow their businesses with the consequent growth of jobs and national prosperity.That includes a Pennine tunnel.

Im not so sure, if the tunnel is built and it is primarily for motors not rail it could actually compliment what they are considering for Manchester to Leeds re rail. Also such a road would allow anyone wanting to get to north Midlands/East of England from the North West easier access. There is a huge new development for factories, storage facilities near Birdwell/Tankersley this could be the logical start/finish of the tunnel.

You are absolutely right, there is a precedent for this. Look at the Private Security Act, this prescribes national licensing for Security personnel. Works very well.

China is a Communist country the rest are Social Democrats. There is a difference. They all operate a capitalist system. Even China. No country operates a socialist programme, it is not possible in the modern world. It has never worked.