Iraq

in this wonderful country of ours, a country of free speech, may I draw to your attention the following comments which were made on the Today programme on the 23rd April by a certain Major Holloway with regard to the presence of American front line troops in Basra 'so we should not be embarrassed that the Americans have come down we work within their organisation'.
Now your regular readers will know about the situation with regard to my son, Ben Griffin, the injunction preventing him from public speaking still being in place, so can somebody explain what our soldiers, who signed up to fight for Queen and Country and to defend us should now be fighting, dying, and killing for the Americans. Was Ben right to speak out as he did? Do our soldiers get the same rates of pay as their American compatriots, do they receive the same treatment for their injuries, do they have the same equipment. Why are they locked up in the airport, what is the point of our being in Iraq.
We should be told who is now in charge in Iraq, and Gordon Brown should bring the soldiers home now because their presence is an insult to the hard won reputation of the British army. Apart from anything else we cannot afford the war, it's time to say that all the lives lost, al the injuries sustained all the deaths of local Iraqis' was for nothing. It was all in vain, we've lost hearts and minds, we've lost everything! Tell me I'm wrong because if nobody does then I'm right again, as usual.

The Euro

some people have quite rightly criticised our wonderful Mr Prime Minister, Gordon Brown for his sale of our gold bullion at ridiculously low prices. The man is an idiot.However, what people have to realist is that the decision not to go into the Euro has also cost us a huge sum of money. Only this money would go to the people.I have researched exchange rates over the last nine years using the internet and am using rates quoted on xe.com if anybody wants to check the validity of the rates I am going to show as at April 1 each year:
2000 1.6662001 1.6122002 1.6362003 1.4452004 1.5022005 1.4582006 1.4342007 1.4782008 1.267
Now what the above exchange rates show is that if you had, let us say a pension of £10,000, then in 2000 that would have been converted into 16,666 euros whereas the same amount of pension converted on April 2008 would have resulted in 12,670 euros, a decline of almost 25%, or 23.98% to be exact.Now then, I bet that when the pound hits parity, that is when we get one euro for each pound that is when the government will say it really is a good time to enter the euro. After all we can't have the underclasses actually benefiting from socialist policy, can we? We've been conned again. I have to declare an interest and say that like Ben Bradshaw I am a member of the European Movement.

PFI schools

surely the time has come for a public inquiry into how the Exeter PFI schools contracts were issued, how the schools conformed to the original planning application and that all the materials used in the construction process met their specifications.Both Devon County Council and Exeter City Council must put onto the internet all the Health and Safety files which they have because that will show the truth. Do they fear the truth. They should not have accepted the buildings before ensuring that they were fit for purpose.The worst aspect of this case is the recently released report from the Office of Fair Trading which must be read in conjuncion with their press release of 22 March 2007, 'OFT closes door on cartel leniency in construction bid rigging cases in England'. Something terribly wrong, and unlawful, has possibly been allowed to happen which has possibly led to a loss to the public purse. The Echo has quite rightly been acknowledged as leading the campaign to get justice, not only for the taxpayer, but more importantly for the generations of school children who will be attending these schools over the next thirty years. Do remember these schools will be costing the taxpayers over £315 million over the next thirty and will we be getting value for our money, somehow, no! Vote for none of the above when you have the chance. Just to remind you that I resigned as a school governor because I knew that this was just not right so don't you dare say that I'm on some sort of bandwagon. Some of us still have principles where taxpayers money comes into the equation.

Princesshay

as some readers may know Exeter City Council hold wonderful public relations get togethers known as Community Forums and I attend these and ask, what I regard as quite important questions, and I think that one which I asked, and was subsequently answered deserves airing.The question I asked was 'Retailers in the City centre have heaters above their doors and then leave the doors open. I'm surprised the council doesn't have a policy on this'.The written answer ' Retialers wish to encourage customers to enter their shops and therefore there will be a conflict between preventing heat loss and encouraging customer visits. Unfortunately, in these circumstances, all the Council can do is provide advice to retailers. The Council's powers do not extend to regulating energy use by a business. The Council has supported Low Carbon Exeter to develop an award scheme to encourage retailers in the city to reduce their energy consumption'.If anybody visits Princesshay I would ask them to just look around and make themselves aware as to how much energy is being wasted. The harsh point is that we are paying for this by the excessive prices charged by these emporiums. Where are the solar panels? Where are the turbines, similar to the ones which are placed on the Civic Centre. Why wasn't the whole development completely enclosed like Drake Circus in Plymouth, which is energy efficient, and not at all windy and cold.

Voting

may I refer to your Points of View of April 15 and the two letters you print from Messrs Holwill and Mashiter both of which are thought provoking. It is always interesting how few women write in about these issues, probably because they are the main beneficiaries of governmnet spending, contentious comment but I'm afraid any research would prove my point.As for the comments made by the aforementioned individuals I could concur with Mr Holwill, No way Pedro would be just as acceptable, but I'm afraid Mr Mashiter has totally lost the plot. To suggest that people vote tactically is utter nonsense. The point is they all the politicians have to be told what a lot of wasters they are. Apart from anything else they have blood on their hands from the continued support of our troops being in Iraq and actually achieving nothing.Todays Echo has the front page headline about £28,000 being spent on one of the PFI schools to alleviate the overheating. The maintenance company should be paying that, not the local taxpayer. We are now learning about the fact that the labour party which has spent millions on being elected does not have the funds to repay its loans in the cash for honours debacle. They must be forced into administration, or nationalised like Northern Rock!Sorry Dave, but it is about time that the political parties were taught a lesson, and it up to the people of Exeter to show them what we think about them. As for Exwick just look at the picture on the front page of the Echo on April 15. This is where your council taxes are going, an utter disgrace. Finally, I was most surprised not to read all those people saying that most of the residents of Exeter are on benefits, come on Bradshaw tell me how wrong I was to make my assertion.

थे परफेक्ट

I think that with every day that passes our glorious unelected Prime minister becomes more and more detached from reality. Just take the abolition of the 10p rate of tax for the lower paid hard working individuals and the pensioners impoverished by a socialist governmnet. The rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Prices Index is total fiction. How any imbecile could even think that we are living in a period of low inflation is deluded.As for the argument that we have had it very good for the period from 1997 under a prudent chancellor who thought that he could abolish boom and bust, just look around you, even in Exeter people are looking poorer.There may well have been a temporary improvement in the standard of living for some but for many the quality of life has gone through the floor.To put it mildly, the boom has been for the few and not for the many. Bit like Churchill when talking about the RAF during the battle of Britain, only never has so much been given by so many to so few. The economy in the UK seems to benefit the undeserving to a degree that will prove unacceptable, there will be an adjustment and it will not be very pleasant. Too much money has been spent on the politicians special projects which is pork barrel politics at its worst and some of us will not forgive those responsible in a hurry. Soon people will appreciate that the money has been squandered and all we are left with is a huge pile of debt. Oh, and don't think that you can escape by emigrating, the worst is yet to come! I have often been proved right in the past that you'd better believe it, batten down the hatches and prepare for the perfect storm.

What a wonderful country

by the time this letter is printed the wonderful ceremony of the Olympic torch being taken through the streets of London will be over. We should all be so proud over this unifying emblem being paraded through the streets of London, where it will also go to the seat of government at Downing Street where Gordon Brown will view the glorious event.How could anybody not be proud at this great moment in our history. Well! I have written before and been heavily criticised for even suggesting that we should boycott the Olympics, I mean China is such a wonderful country where the economy is roaring ahead and people are not beig executed for their body parts. Where there is complete freedom of the press and access to the Internet is not at all restricted. Where still the majority of the people live in abject poverty.No, I am so wrong to be critical and no doubt the Editor will probably be told not to print this one because we really mustn't upset the Chinese because it is all the fault of the Tibetans who really should not complain so much.In the meantime I wonder how much these athletes who tell us that it's all about sport, fraternity , and breaking down barriers, and nothing to do with politics and human rights are improving. In the meantime our occupation of a sovereign country, Iraq, continues the economy is great and you really should appreciate what the wonderful labour government has done for us all over the last ten years. You couldn't make it up. Remember, it's a good day to bury bad news!

Vote none of the above

We know that the elections which are going to be held in Exeter are for City Councillors but I think we can make it more than this.What I absolutely believe in is democracy and the vote. However, at this time there is something fatally flawed with, not only local government but also national government. The list is long but this is about the occupation of Iraq, the continuing war in Agfhanistan, the corruption of cash for honours, the Gordon Brown coup, the expenses of MPs, the Exeter Unitary bid, the abolition of the 10p rate of income tax, you get my drift.So, what can we, the people do about this. Well here in Exeter we can send a message to all of them. Please cast your vote, but, put 'none of the above'. Labour is just holding on to the vestiges of power, the conservatives are a pathetic opposition, the liberal democrats seem to be more concerned with notches on bed posts, so, none of the political parties deserve our vote.So, let this be a campaign for change. Cast your vote, but for none of the political parties. They have no legitimacy. Give them the message from Exeter that they will never, ever, forget. Vote 'none of the above'.