Shamik Das


Friday, July 31, 2009

BNP scum appointed to key Brussels committees

Scum: BNP leader Nick GriffinTHE two British National Party MEPs elected in last month’s European elections have this week been appointed to key parliamentary committees.



Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons will take up seats on the influential Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) committees.

The committee Griffin will sit on (ENVI) is currently looking into smoke-free environments and tackling alcoholism – a direct contradiction of the BNP’s pledge to overturn the smoking ban and “slash the duty on beer” served in pubs.

It also oversees the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The BNP policy in this area is to state, without evidence, that “diseases such as TB and AIDS are on the increase as a result of immigration.”

The AFCO committee, on which Brons will sit, is responsible for “the implementation of the EU Treaty” – a treaty opposed by the BNP – who are also pledged to complete withdrawal from the EU.

They will also be substitutes on two further committees: Griffin on Industry, Research and Energy and Brons on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, giving them a foothold in four of the Parliament’s 22 committees.

Griffin and Brons sit amongst the Euronat grouping of far-Right political parties, alongside the likes of convicted Holocaust-denier and alleged torturer Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France’s Front National.

In 1987, Le Pen described the Holocaust as “just a detail”, adding in 1996 that “if you take a 1,000-page book on World War II, the concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers ten to 15 lines; that is what one calls a detail.”

In 1957, Le Pen is alleged to have committed acts of torture while a lieutenant in the Algerian War, an assertion backed up evidence from Le Monde – the paper producing the torture dagger used by Le Pen at a Paris libel trial in 2003.

The other parties in the BNP’s grouping are the Dutch Nieuw Rechts, Italy’s Fiamma Tricolore, the Swedish National Democrats and Spain’s Democracia Nacional.

British Democracy Forum: UKIP/BNP advance on Europe
Hope Not Hate: Forewarning of the BNP Euro threat

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Osborne's FSA plans lift lid on Tory links to city

Shadow Chancellor George OsborneGEORGE OSBORNE'S widely-trailed plans to abolish the Financial Services Authority, unveiled yesterday, appear to pose more questions than they answer.



The proposals – to disband the FSA and transfer its powers to the Bank of England and a new quango – also raise potentially serious conflicts of interest.

As this morning’s Financial Times editorial states, not only will their “plans for wholesale butchery” make the FSA’s task more difficult over the coming year, but it risks imbuing too much power in an “unchecked and unchallenged” central bank.

Although the FSA has recently faced questions of incompetence, it had previously been held up as a very strong regulator, particularly on consumer protection, its model replicated around the world – most notably in Japan and Germany.

The Tory plans, particularly the creation of the Financial Policy Committee super-quango, appear to undermine David Cameron’s much-vaunted “bonfire of the quangos” purge.

Additionally, neither the Shadow Chancellor nor Leader of the Opposition gave a figure as to how much their plans would cost, and no figures were given on any projected benefit to the economy.

Questions have also been raised about the Conservative party’s links to hedge fund managers, who have long complained about over-regulation by the watchdog.

Since David Cameron became party leader, a third of all Conservative funding has come from financial firms and bankers linked to the City.

Of the £44 million the Tories received in the three years following his election in December 2005, £14 million came from those in the finance industry – with some investment firms donating more than £1 million.

£662,500 was donated by Australian businessman Michael Hintze of CQS Management, while £210,000 came from Paul Ruddock, co-founder of Lansdowne Partners.

Both men, who profited handsomely from short-selling – a practice which was banned by the FSA – are members of elite Tory supporters club The Leader’s Group, annual membership of which costs £50,000 and entails lunches, dinners and receptions with senior Shadow Cabinet members.

The hostility of many in the city to the FSA is best illustrated in a survey of more than 1,500 senior executives carried out in 2002, in which the FSA had been accused of being “too consumer friendly” and being “too preoccupied with helping consumers”.

A majority of those polled believed that “the burden of regulation on the industry is too great” and that “too much weight is being given to the interest of consumers”.

Financial Services Authority
Download the "Sound Banking" White Paper

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Look at his face, just  look at his face!!

He's behind you... Anfrew Flintoff leads the laughs as Ricky Ponting is dismissed

RICKY PONTING looks incredulous after being given out caught behind by the third umpire as the second Test reached boiling point at Lord's yesterday.

Today, the biggest day in the sporting calendar, the debate is all about whether or not England will enforce the follow-on should Australia fail to score the 70 runs they need to avoid that possibility.

To enforce or not to enforce; what would WG do?!

Cricinfo: Live text commentary from Lord's
Test Match Special: Live audio commentary

Friday, July 10, 2009

Kat's the way to do it!

Kat-tastic: Simon Katich celebrates his first Ashes ton

SIMON KATICH roars with delight after reaching his maiden Ashes century and eighth overall.

A man much derided, not least for his performances four years ago, not least by fools like me, and boy, how wrong we all were!

Mea culpa!! :P

Cricinfo: Live text commentary from Cardiff
Test Match Special: Live audio commentary