THREE PENDING, AND INTERLINKED (?), SCANDALS CRYING OUT FOR MORE INVESTIGATION.

1. RURAL POST OFFICES.
Recently Lib-Dem and Labour MPs have been making great political capital in
their constituencies over their high-profile collecting of signatures for
petitions to the Government to save rural post offices from closure by
turning them into 'universal banks' for the payment of State benefits, etc.
They, of course, had already been given the nod that Stephen Byers, Trade &
Industry Secretary, had already decided on this course and the MPs' actions
were merely a cynical exercise in ensuring that they were able to claim the
credit locally when the decision was made public.
Unfortunately for them, everyone in the Lib-Lab pact had apparently
forgotten just how successful all the parliamentary Quislings had been in
handing over power to Brussels and discovered too late that they needed but
hadn't obtained EU approval for the rescue plan.
(It's a sad commentary on our times that the mere revelation that Her
Majesty's Government needs permission from an external power before it can
take a decision on something as domestic as the well-being of our sub-post
offices has not brought forth rioting in the streets).
Nevertheless, this situation only came to light on Friday, 21st July and was
reported as such in a small article in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday, 22nd
July by George Jones, their Political Editor.  Tucked away on page 14 and
headed "EU may block plans to save rural post offices", it stated that
Stephen Byers did not get EU approval before announcing his rescue plan and
implied that approval would not be forthcoming because the Government
proposed providing financial assistance, through a modern on-line computer
system linking the 18,500 post offices, which offended against the rules
against subsidies (shades of the EU allowing France to subsidise Air France
to the tune of billions!).
I was looking forward to having some fun at the expense of my local Lib-Dim
MP on this subject when, lo and behold, just one week later, yesteday
Saturday, 29th July, The Guardian publishes a letter that it has apparently
had "leaked" to it purporting to be from the British Bankers Association
saying that it will not co-operate with any Government scheme to introduce
any 'universal bank' operated by rural post offices.  Neatly, the Government
is off the hook, it escapes having to admit that it was negligent in not
realising that it needed permission before announcing its plans; it doesn't
have to admit that it couldn't have proceeded anyway because the necessary
approval wouldn't have been forthcoming; it covers up from the public that
it needed EU permission for such a domestic affair, at a time when they are
desparate not to further alienate public opinion in favour of scrapping our
currency, and they discover the perfect scape-goat  in "the banks"(nobody
afterall is more unpopular in rural areas after the recent large-scale
closure of branches than the Big Four banks).
The "leaked letter" story was also carried yesterday on other news media, (I
saw it on SkyNews and have written to the News editor accordingly) and I
have no doubt that it was peddled to them by the Government's
'disinformation unit'.
No doubt there will be a 'quid pro quo' for the banking fraternity agreeing
to let the Government deflect the blame away from the EU and I fully expect
to see one or more prominent bankers ennobled in the next Honours List.

2. HOUSE-BUILDING TARGETS
Many will know that following immense public pressure from residents and
local authorities alike  throughout already-overpopulated southern England,
the Government's initial planned numbers of new houses to be constructed
there has been considerably reduced.  John Prescott has even managed to
obtain political kudos, for protecting the environment and rural areas, by
stating that 60% of the new houses should be built on 'brownfield' sites,
rather than 'greenfield' ones.

Apropos of the 'rural post offices' piece above, Christopher Booker in
today's edition of his weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph lifts the lid
on a similar story of HM Government's inability to take any decisions
without obtaining the approval of its masters in Brussels.  More
importantly, he tells it BEFORE John Prescott's department has had the
opportunity of finding a scapegoat to divert the blame away from the EU.
He says "For six months the Government has managed to conceal that a ruling
by the EC has left in total disarray its policy to save Britain's
countryside from being coveed by millions of new houses."  He explains that
"building on former industrial or 'brownfield' sites.. would be very costly
but billions of pounds in grants would be available through a Partnership
Investment Programme".  However, "on December 22 last year, the Commission
ruled this would breach EU regulations on state subsidies.  it was such a
body blow to Mr Prescott's policy that he and his officials kept very quiet
about it, while racking their brains as to what to do.  Only when Mr Anthony
Steen, MP (Cons.Totnes), last month spotted a reference in a magazine for
local government officials and put down parliamentary questions did the
Government admit what had happened.  As Mr Steen points out, Brussels has
regularly broken the rules by allowing vast subsidies to the German, French,
Italian and Spanish coal and steel industries.  The Commission even managed
to circumvent an ECJ ruling against a notorious £2 billion payout to Air
France, equivalent to the annual losses of all the world's airlines.
"When it comes to restoring polluted land in Britain", says Mr Steen, "we
are told this is illegal.  It seems Mr Prescott's officials are now having
to crawl to Brussels to ask what they can do next."

Whilst the Government's cover-up in this instance could be said to be
'passive',  rather than 'active' as in the 'rural post offices' case, it is
still clear that nothing was made public for more than six months.  Arguably
this was because an admission by the Government that it was not within its
powers to take decisions of this nature would be devastating to the policy
we now know, as a result of recent leaked memos, to have been its undeclared
policy of 'softening up' public opinion towards the euro and the EU in
general.  Parliament has been misled and, at the very least, there should be
a motion of no confidence tabled.  How very convenient for Blair that he has
just despatched Parliament for a recess of three months.

3.  THE MILLENNIUM DOME and JAPANESE PRESSURE TO JOIN THE EURO.
Here I merely raise four news items and leave it to others to consider if,
taken together, they amount to circumstantial evidence sufficient to warrant
further investigation as to whether the items are linked, if so, to what
extent, and whether such linkage represents a conspiracy to mislead
Parliament.
a)    The government are reported to have reached agreement on a sale of the
whole of the 48-acre Millenium Dome site plus 15 acres of adjoining prime
development land to the Japanese bank, NOMURA, for the sum of £105M (this
against estimated costs to the tax-payer of acquisition, construction and
operation to date of approx. £1,000M)
b)    Certain Japanese companies are reported as stating publicly that they
believe that Britain should enter the'euro' as soon as possible.  It is also
reported that some Japanese companies may look again at their investments in
the UK should Britain fail to join the single currency.
c)    Tony Blair attends a summit meeting in Okinawa where he has talks with
the Japanese Prime Minister on "matters of common interest".  It is
universally accepted that the links between big business and Government are
closer in Japan than in any other developed nation.
d)    It is revealed today, Sunday, 30th July, that the government had
received an offer of £155M for the sale of the Dome before they proceeded to
sell it to Nomura for £50M LESS.

I think the British public are entitled to know what services are to be
performed by (a) NOMURA, (b)any other Japanese companies in the UK, and (c)
the Japanese government, in return for a bung of £50 million.

Regards,
David Samuel






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