Rubbish & rants, etc...(UK centric)....

So in preparation for my descent into rhetoric I've been searching out my old Auberon Waugh compendia. Most of Waugh's insults are so politically incorrect that they are almost impossible to repeat in this day and age. "....resembling a typical plumber with a cleft palate who has lost his dentures down the u-bend...." etc is offensive to so many people, be they plumbers or folk with cleft palates, or merely the parents or relatives of plumbers or the craniofacially challenged. Or even those with dentures, I suppose.
Gearing up to be offensive on purpose is not my regular modus operandi: so I've taken it upon myself to refresh my memory with the works of the masters.

Rheinhold Aman is yer man, of course. Normally, only the right-of-centre descend to obloquy, even of an heightened form. Both Waugh and Aman are/were pretty right-wing, but if folk mess with my stuff....my culture....well, I'd hope for the odd bit of support from the rest of the folk who are in some way beholden to the BBC for many of their media pleasures. If they think Radio 3 or 4 (or even Radio 6) could be replaced by commercial stations, then I think them living in Cloud-Cuckoo-Land.

I'm also of the opinion that if any individual wants to be able to stand for Parliament, he or she should be resident in the UK for tax purposes. We may not be governed by absentee non-taxpayers who will not have to conform with laws they draft or assist in passing.

Ashcroft (or as another example, Lord Paul on the Labour side) can give whatever monies he likes to charities, political parties, or political advertising: if he is not resident in the UK for tax purposes, then he should not be eligible for any public office, let alone any office of state. And this tax-residency should not be contingent upon office, rather the other way around: a candidate should not be considered unless he or she has a minimal qualifying period of paying tax. Perhaps five years would mean they have actually paid their way and have a proven stake in UK PLC. I might also agree to a five year residency period before any welfare qualification. The newspapers go on and on about scroungers coming over here to get welfare: I'm just as worried about tax-exiles instructing the rest of us about how much tax we should pay, and for what.

Cameron has to get his act together rather better if he wants to present himself as both rescuer of the UK from Brown's 'mismanagement', and some sort of patriot spanning the classes: Dave should have got on Ashcroft's case much earlier. As is, now he may have to get mediæval on Ashcroft's ass, as the saying is: well either that, or appear that he condones the sort of feathering of nests that Ashcroft's non-dom circumstances have allowed.

The upper classes, don't you just love the way they manage to find ways around paying the same taxes as the rest of us ordinary folk? (Though it must be said, by birth and some attitudes I suppose I am vulnerable to at least an oblique accusation of being a member of the upper classes.)
 

(no subject)

Well, if I have to spell it out in words that anyone can understand.

To my mind the BBC is the greatest English-Language force for good that there is. In some respects it could be said that the UK doesn't need a foreign policy if it has the BBC.

The BBC is our first line of defence: it presents us to the outside world, and its presence in all areas of the market should not be subject to commercial considerations any more than our armed forces should be.

It is the communication medium which we use to talk to the Linguistic Commonwealth of English-speaking peoples of all nations.

And just to really piss the ideological freebooting end of the Tory party right off: it is, because of all these things, beloved of HM, and further, is beloved of the British people. Strange, how the dip in the Tories popularity has coincided with all this, isn't it? It would be a shame if Dave had his 'Poll Tax' moment forced upon him by his laissez faire colleagues before he even took office.