Belarus protest shutdown

The bully of Belarus has his batons on, clearing the protest against the rigged elections in Europe’s most fascist state. According to The Times they have been taken away, I can only hope that they don't disappear - like some other political opponents have.

.

It is a shame that more people in Minsk were not willing to stand up for freedom, but the grinding dreariness of Belarus in late winter is hardly inspiring - Belarus should be subject to international isolation. New Zealand should ostracise it economically and diplomatically, as it has Zimbabwe. No Right Turn has also blogged this and supported liberal democracy in Minsk. I suspect Belarus will lose more of its brightest stars to Russia and Ukraine, where there is more freedom and more opportunity - while its sad people continue to exist, not live.

Kember, Sooden and Loney freed

Congratulations on the SAS for rescuing Norman Kember, Harmeet Sooden and Jim Loney from their kidnappers in Iraq. DPF, PC, Whaleoil and Oswald Bastable have blogged on this, but I am pleased at last that the CPT website thanks the soldiers for risking their lives for these misguided peace campaigners.
.
As much as I disagree with IFR and CPT, I am pleased that peaceful people have been freed. To paraphrase Voltaire’s famous phrase, I disagree vehemently in what they believe in, but I defend their right to freedom and their own lives. The soldiers who risked their lives for these misguided fools are the true heroes - the soldiers have been thanked after some outrage that it was reported the hostages were "freed" (as if the kidnappers had chosen to do it).

.
The so-called “peace movement” is always keen to advocate peace between countries, to exercise moral equivalency in treating evil murdering totalitarians with the semi-free world and to ignore peace within countries (it is “ok” for Iraqis to be attacked by Saddam’s government, but not US forces). Had the peace movement had its way, you wouldn’t be reading blogs, you might be speaking German or Russian, as Europe would be divided between Hitler and Stalin, and the USA may have sat back and negotiated “peace” with evil. War is the second greatest evil in the world, the greatest in when governments turn on their own people.

.

Ask yourself whether, truly, politicians in western democracies want war. Bush would have much preferred Saddam to have been overthrown, Libya ended its nuclear weapons programme and normalised relations with the west - which was a relief. It would be a relief if Kim Jong Il ended North Korea's weapon's programme and talked about reform and opening up. The savings to western democracies in reducing military expenditure are appealling to politicians on the left, because money can be funnelled into other spending, and the right, because it can fund tax cuts. War is risky, messy and expensive - and western democracies always fair worse because the media is uncensored - and because only in a free country can people protest against the government's side during war. Notice when the Cold War ended how the US and the UK withdraw massive forces from western Europe, shut down bases (low cost airlines fly to some of those now!), cut weapons and troop deployments - because the threat had gone.

UK Budget yawn

I thought about what to say about this - just more tax and spend, more throwing money at the broken inefficient NHS and the education system, letting Britain slosh around on welfare, a massive inefficient regulatory behemoth of a bureaucracy, dishing out subsidies to whoever shouts the loudest.
.
For all I am grateful for with Tony Blair (reforming Labour to not be an outpost of the Warsaw Pact and a solid commitment to enlightenment values and Western civilisation), Gordon Brown reminds me a lot of Michael Cullen, except I think Cullen is better. Brown doesn't ridiculously overspend or ridiculously increase taxes, he doesn't rock the boat, but bit by bit he adds on extra spending, little discounts on taxes here and there, making the state ever more complicated and ever more intrusive. The idea that people should pay for what they use where practicable, and be taxed on a fairly uniform basis is light years away from Brown or Cullen. It is a trend since the end of Thatcher and Ruth Richardson that Budgets have been about satisfying interest groups with axes to grind. Axes they grind at the expense of the silent majority.
.
Britain has had its halcyon days of heady reform, which brought it back from the brink - the only thing stopping it being the poor cousin of Europe is that France, Italy and Germany are worse.
.
Look at this load of pork and thieving from the budget:
.
- free off peak bus travel nationwide for pensioners and disabled people;
- establishing a £1 billion health research fund;
- establishing an International Business Advisory Council;
- increase to Enterprise Capital Funds scheme;
- Money for Elite athletes training for the Olympics
- Increase road tax for large so called "more polluting" vehicles

- Increased landfill tax credit
- Fiddling of stamp duty to increase net revenue (increase threshold, remove exemptions)
- Money for developing microgeneration technology

.

Yes I know Cullen does that too, but the tax system in NZ is far simpler, and the subsidies are far lower for businesses and pork. In short, more of the nonsense was ripped out under Douglas and Richardson than under Thatcher.

.

£552 billion of Brit's money is being spent by Brown, that's £9200 per person, £516 billion in tax is being raised, which is £8600 per person. So it's borrow and spend. Someone's getting a good deal, since I am paying more than that in income tax alone. The single biggest item is "social protection" at £151 billion - in other words, compulsory social welfare. Health is second at £96 billion, and it continues to disappoint.

.

and anyone who thinks National Insurance pays for health and pensions needs to wake up - the total revenue from national insurance contributions is £90 billion. Hiding this cost helps to ensure the average Brit thinks he is paying the full cost of the NHS from national insurance - which is a lie.

.

but I did learn the median income is £24000. Translate that into $NZ and you'll see that New Zealand has low incomes, and a lower cost of living (translating £prices into NZ$ prices would drive a kiwi mad here). Dr Cullen's rich tax bracket would hit the average income earner in the UK.

.

oh well, it's daylight from 7am till 6pm now :)

ETA to end terrorism

CNN reports Basque separatist terrorist movement ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) has declared a permanent "ceasefire" as of Friday (ceasefire being the word used by cowardly murderers of innocent civilians who think terrorism is akin to fighting a real war), which is about time.

.

It declared a "ceasefire" a few years back that only lasted two years - although this time it appears to be genuinely permanent, a commitment to using democratic means to advance self-government for the Basque people. Frankly, given its appalling conduct in recent years, it has turned off most Basques from it. ETA was founded as a response to the oppression of the Franco regime against the Basque people, it has continued terrorist action, with five bombings last year, none of which claimed any lives.

.

I'm not commending ETA at all, it has been responsible for much damage and many injuries and deaths over several decades. One of the worst was a bomb in a supermarket carpark in Barcelona in 1987 killing 21. Amnesty International has for many years called for ETA to cease terrorism. It simply is a relief that it is ending - Basque separatism was never going to happen, and with the European Union, having your own nationstate was increasingly irrelevant. Nationalism is a game played by the ignorant - it doesn't define you, it limits you.

Libertarianz influence

Ten years ago the only people you could hear talking about politicians or bureaucrats suckling off the state tit were Lindsay Perigo and Deborah Coddington, on World Service New Zealand and then Radio Liberty. It was also found in The Free Radical, and in coming years would be the language used by Libertarianz in its many press releases.

.

Oswald Bastable has rightfully pointed out how wonderful the Dom Post is in using language such as "He is also young, personable if reserved, and can boast something almost no one else in Cabinet can: that he is a successful businessman and lawyer who did not spend his formative years suckling at the public teat" to describe David Parker.

.

Those are words rarely heard from ACT or National - but accurate nonetheless and not the language that people beholden to the sacred state use, but the language of laissez faire free market capitalists.