Democracy - Yeah Right!

There is a massive constitutional problem in Britain, it has been swept under the carpet by government, but it is a national disgrace, and one that calls into question the legitimacy of Gordon Brown to hold the office of Prime Minister (and the legitimacy of Gordon Brown hehehe).

So what's my beef with the Scotch Git ™? Well it's very simple, it's the West Lothian Question.

For those unfamilliar with this, this is what it means;

Scotland has a devolved Parliament which makes decisions on some areas of Scottish life. Westminster MP's no longer have a say in these aspects, such as prescription charges, university tution fees and many other domestic issues. So the Scots have MSP's (Members od the Scottish Parliament) who represent them in their parliament in these matters. However, they also have MP's in Westminster who represent them in National Government. So if the government wanted to bring in University tution fees in England and Wales, they wheeled in their Scottish constituency MP's to vote for it.

Therefore residents of Scotland get to decide for themselves and then get the right to arbitarilly choose something different for the English.

Gordon Brown's children will be entitled to free University education, but he has decided that the vast majority of British students shouldn't be entitled to this and has used the votes of those who have no right to have any say in the matter, to get it through.

While these sort of issues exist, the people of England are being treated as second class citizens, and in no other country would this be tolerated. It would be like the people of New York voting to abolish sales tax, but then voting to have the tax raised to 20% in Vermont, it makes a nonsense of our democracy.

British Jobs For British Workers

Another week and more announcements of companies cutting jobs. Now it's Virgin Media announcing 2200 job losses. This has got to be good news for Mumbai, as you are already directed to Indian call centres for a number of their services.

But what can be done to safeguard our economy? Surely it is sensible to promote jobs in Britain, as the unemployed will not be subscribing to Cable TV presumably. The problem is a far worse one than this however, and goes all the way to 10 Downing Street.

If Gordon Brown tells you he wants to promote or safeguard British jobs he is a liar. The British government outsource more work now than ever before, and they don't much care where these jobs go. Currently Capita are operating the Coal Health Contract (the scheme that compensates miners for industrial disease on behalf of DECC), TV Licensing and the Criminal Records Bureau in Mumbai. Whilst they lay off staff in Britain they are constantly ramping up the numbers in India, all with the government's blessing. Officials from the relevant departments have all been out there and have openly said how pleased they are with the way things are being done.

It is an outrage and a scandal that the British Government, should carry on like this. It's one thing for private companies to operate offshore, we all have a choice whether we use their services or not, but when the Government do it, the same people that we have elected to look after our interests, the same politicians who talk about stimulating the economy and creating jobs, it shows what contempt politicians have for the electorate.

Of course Capita were embroiled in the loans to labour scandal and had to pay Rod Aldridge the then chairman his million pounds back. So is it any wonder that Capita was given carte blanche by the government to send their jobs abroad?