You are currently browsing the daily archive for May 16th, 2008.
Gordon Browns last remaining shred of credibility seems to be in tatters. Far from pulling people out of poverty Labour have left many ever deeper in need. As the Spectators Coffee House blog says
“They’ve expended a whole lot of effort, time and taxpayers’ cash to lift people from just under that line to just over it – success, by this Government’s terms. But those far below the line have been left behind.”
The article which Coffee House refers to comes from The Adam Smith Institute. Its surprising that what it reveals has not been more publicly discussed. I guess that is down to it being ignored by left wing cheer leaders in the media and the fact that left wing liberals are a gullible bunch and are far to easily conned by endless government fiddles. Only last night on Question Time the Guardianista end of the panel were acknowledging that this Labour government had been successful in reducing poverty and that of course this would have been quite impossible under a Conservative one. Well, now even this fig leaf has been removed.
The other point that this article makes is that poverty is only being ‘reduced’ by putting people on benefits. We are not eliminating poverty by virtue of a successful economy, by means of enterprise. Its simply being reduced by making people dependent on state handouts. There is nothing sustainable about it at all.
” … many people would fall below the government’s poverty target were it not for in-work benefits. And the number of us receiving those has rocketed – from around 4% of working-age households in 1997 to around 15% today. We’ve taken people out of ‘poverty’ by making them more dependent on the state.”
Can there be anyone who believes a word this government says? Right from day one with its infamous pledge card, a whole list of bogus targets have been set by Labour which have no relevance to real improvement or real ‘good governance’, but all to do with achieving some bell ringing propaganda success.
At 10AM today a of Lancaster bomber flew over Derwent Water in Derbyshire in commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the Dambusters 1943 raid by 617 Squadron which breached the Mohner and Eder dams. A third dam the Sorpe was attacked by 2 surviving planes but remained intact, otherwise the German war effort would have been catastrophically disabled.
8 planes out of 19 failed to return including several which were targeted at the Sorpe. 617 Squadron moved on to be a crack ‘pathfinder’ special operations squadron.
It is an occasion which perhaps should make us think again at the sacrifice of the aircrews of Bomber Command in WW2. Some 55,000 aircrew were killed, which equates to a 60% attrition rate. This amounts to about 12.5% of total British war deaths. A shocking statistic which indicates the huge proportion of the British war effort given over to its bomber force, the only way for many years the British could attack Germany. Only about 25 out of 100 aircrew could expect to escape the war unscathed, even those captured and held prisoner underwent great privation and many died in captivity. Certainly on some significant occasions civilian losses were very heavy but we should also remember that on many occasions the losses from aircrew exceeded the losses on the ground.
After the war politicians sought to selectively forget the orders and policy they themselves directed Bomber Command to carry out. Post war prime minister Atlee chose not to award a campaign medal to Bomber Command aircrew and denied a peerage to Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris. It remains a continuing shame on our nation that this political decision remains uncorrected.
