Malcolm Blair Robinson

An idea to stimulate economic growth without further government borrowing. Written in plain English and very easy to follow, this is the only really fresh approach out there to the intractable problems of the UK economy, and it is just beginning to be noticed in important places. Buy! Download only .99p Paperback £2.99

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Set in the mid nineteen nineties, this fast moving thriller lifts the curtain on sex, sleaze and corruption in high places as the long reign of the government totters to an end, following the ousting of the iconic Margaret Thatcher. The novel catches the mood of those times with a host of fictional characters who engage in political intrigue, sex, money laundering and murder, pursued by an Irish investigative journalist and his girlfriend, the daughter of a cabinet minister found dead in a hotel room after bondage sex.

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Having been on a two day break in Kent when I was able to see first hand the road chaos, not just on the motorway but on the byroads which I coped with using local knowledge acquired by living in the county for the first 44 years of my life. I think this first Blog on my return should be about this.

It is not a crisis over lorries or even over migrants. It is a crisis of governments losing control of events and floundering about in the consequences, making puffed up statements, holding emergency meetings and proving incompetent to find a pathway towards resolution. The British government is as much to blame as the French, both are victims of EU discord and both have been responsible for making things worse. The toppling of Gaddafi  was a lunatic act resulting in a failed state at the southern gateway to Europe. Various other foreign policies have contributed to the diaspora of the desperate. Accord among EU nations about how to help these helpless people is non-existent; much of that is the UK’s fault through its nihilist approach to a quota scheme, leaving Italy and Greece to cope with the brunt of the influx and Germany to make the best effort to accept them into her midst.

First of all France has to use troops if necessary to secure the Channel Tunnel and Britain should offer a brigade of its own troops to help. Permanent lorry parks on a grand scale must be established on both sides of the channel to provide holding arrangements to cope with this and future emergencies arising out of accident, strikes, breakdowns or other issues, including migrants. Proper camps must be set up on both sides of the channel to house thousands of refugees while decisions are made whether to admit or deport them.

The UK has to get its head round the realities of immigration. Legal EU migrants, whatever UKIP says, contribute more in tax than they take out in benefits by quite a margin so all this talk of taking control of our borders is posturing nonsense. The problem we have is with illegals actually coming here or trying to in massed assaults involving thousands. They try not because they want benefits, but because they want to work and the opportunities they aim for are in the black economy. And the reason they aim for the black economy in Britain is because it is the easiest in Europe to access. And why? Because we are the only advanced economy in Europe in which yo do not need to carry an identity card.

Think about that.

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Details of the alleged plots and schemes to sink the Labour party are beginning to emerge. On the one hand there does appear to be some evidence that a few Telegraph readers on the nutty wing may have become supporters in order to vote for Corbyn, but the main thrust seems to be coming from a campaign from several unions to call or text their members and encourage them to vote individually, as the blanket union vote for the new leader no longer exists. It will therefore make it much more difficult to remove any candidate by a later challenge without appearing an out of touch spoiler, if the winner has a substantial lead in what is now a popular vote. What is clear is that many, if not the majority, of those votes are likely to come from people who have given up voting at all because of disenchantment with New labour. There could be up to 4 million of those, though how many will take part is difficult to tell.

A recent poll found that people were generally voting for the candidate whom they thought had the best chance of winning for Labour in 2020. Except for Corbyn. His votes are coming from people who like his policies and the distance he is putting between his vision and New Labour. That is where his strength is coming from. So while the mist is clearing, visibility remains at best fair. There is very little doubt that Labour has temporarily lost its way and when it finds it again, whoever wins will be obliged to lead from far further left than anybody since Neil Kinnock. But it will be a left of fairness, inclusion and rebalancing the economy to favour labour over capital. It will not hark back to Clause Four or union indiscipline. Those days are gone.

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On a personal level it is sad to see a career unravel, but Lord Sewel can blame nobody but himself. What this does bring into sharp relief is the irrelevance and unsuitability of the House Of Lords as an institution of government in a country which bestrides the world claiming to be a democracy. Originally a seat in the Lords was an honour you inherited when  the aristocracy was a power in the land. The industrial revolution opened up the opportunity to get a seat through money. The modern method is to get there for rather vague reasons to do with charity,  sport, business or whatever. Also through politics. Here the route is far better defined; rejection, failure and old age.

If things were ticking along just nicely we could perhaps totter on. But the Union in the UK is by no means secure amid arguments over devo-max, English votes and an underlying resentment in the three smaller nations of the predominance of Tories in England, when elsewhere their representation varies between little and nil. The premises of the House of Lords would be ideal to house a UK Parliament, elected by universal franchise. It could also be the revising chamber for all the National parliaments, including the English parliament which would occupy the present House of Commons.

As for the Noble Lords, just send them home. If they would like to come back they would have to do so individually backed by a mandate of the people. They would not thus  be ennobled, but they would be modern elected democrats. They would also have to behave.

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These Tor Raven thrillers offer a variety of themes; corruption and sex in high places, World War II drama  and cover ups, plus murder with a retro-detective sleuth, and a village in the grip of Satan. All FREE for a short  promo in Kindle and from £4.99 in Paperback. Download Now!!         UK     US

The biggest mistake Ed Milliband ever made was to resign as leader when he did. Since his departure his party has been drifting rudderless, caught up in a leadership election for which it was not prepared and in which it appears unable to see the wood for the trees. Now the whole election process has been called into question with allegations of weirdoes from both left and right becoming supporters just to make mischief and skew the result. How on earth the party has electoral arrangements of such a peculiar style is difficult for all outsiders and many insiders to fathom. Nevertheless this is a slippery slope. Order must be restored at once or the whole party will go over the cliff. If that happens, like Humpty Dumpty, it might not be easy to put it together again.

Alex Salmond has come clean. The quest for Scottish independence is not over. There are three issues which may trigger another vote (remember it took two votes for devolution). One is if England votes to leave the EU and Scotland votes to stay. The next is the forced austerity which hits the poorest which Scotland voted decisively against. The the failure to deliver on the lavish devo-max promises a panicked English political establishment made to swing the last vote to NO. The only way to interrupt this chain of events is for the Scottish people to boot out the SNP at the  Holyrood election next year. This does not seem likely.