Jim Nicholson MEP doesn’t tweet any more…

If twitter accounts are anything to go by, then Jim Nicholson, the Ulster Unionist Party’s lone representative in Europe, doesn’t really seem to care. His last tweet was on August 15, 2009.  The Euro elections were also in 2009.  Since his re-election he hasn’t much bothered to tweet.  Prior to his last tweet on August 15 he tweeted 196 times.  Since then, nothing.

I suspect the main reason for this is that Nicholson has never actually mastered the tweet. I suspect someone was tweeting for him. His twitter account links to VoteforChangeNI.com – a site that was created by the Conservative Party and UUP. But the domain, no doubt, was not renewed.

However, there is something bizarrely eloquent about this dumbed twitter account.  The last tweet, with a dead link, says simply, “Labour letting down NI’s Pensioners.” And then Mr Nicholson says nothing else. Struck mute and his 1,116 followers left hanging, waiting for the next instalment, the next rajor-sharp tweet that never comes.

But the question hanging in the sky, with the birds, is does Mr Nicholson know he has a twitter account – and does he care?  I suspect not on both counts. And why does he not care? The following extract might help explain.

All lefties now.  Sammy Wilson.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After my contribution to Good Morning Ulster this morning – discussing the need for continued austerity with the tax and spend MP Mark Durkan – several callers questioned my logic that the only contributor to wealth was the private sector.  One caller suggested that my Economics knowledge was deficient (no argument there, it’s not really a science and most Economists make it up as they go).  However, this caller suggested that my simplistic argument relating to the private sector – business – being the only source of growth was flawed.  The caller asked, incredulously, did I not know that 4 things contributed to growth: production, consumption, government spending and exports.

However, I think this caller may, with further investigation, come to the conclusion that without production (private sector) there would be no consumption, no government tax take  and no exports. I rest my case.

However, more worrying, was Mark Durkan’s clear lack of any economic understanding. It appears sometimes that the synapses of doctrinally motivated lefties (and Sammy Wilson is sounding more and more like one – he appeared later on the the programme) aren’t connected the same way as people who have to manage budgets or run businesses. Both Durkan and Wilson argue that it would be better that the government borrowed more to employ people to build infrastructure than to have them hanging around on the dole. The argument is so patently absurd that it barely merits a response, but here goes.

First argument against is that we can’t afford it. UK public spending is at absurdly high – grotesquely high – levels.  Public debt is now above £1 Trillion. To service that debt costs hundreds of billions – despite the UK’s relatively low bond yield levels. If bond yields creep up (and they will if debt increases) the cost of borrowing – and the required tax take – will go up too.

Second argument – it’s not clear what UK infrastructure is needed. For example, should we building roads when what we really need is better broadband infrastructure? And why should the UK government be getting involved in Internet provision when it can’t even run the NHS efficiently? Oh and if infrastructure is provided under PFI (like the grandiose new Invest NI building on Bedford Street) will we be, as taxpayers, paying through the nose to property developers in perpetuity?

Third argument – the unemployment reduction myth. Sammy Wilson on GMU this morning, argued that the government should be developing infrastructure to employ the unemployed. Last time I looked the majority of the unemployed were not highly skilled engineers, planners, legals – or the other types of people needed to undertake infrastructure work. Even construction workers these days need to have vast experience to undertake the types of infrastructure projects Sammy Wilson, no doubt, has in mind. And most of the firms capable of delivering big ticket infrastructure projects would probably be better off working in the high-growth (but infrastructure poor) BRIC economies than in the UK.  Plus such projects would yield valuable export revenue at a time when the UK needs it most.

Fourth argument against Keynesian interventionist spending is that it increases dependence on the state at a time we need increased dependence on commercial led growth. State spending is merely a prop – it’s not the real economy, stupid. What we need is proper demand led growth where businesses here develop good products and sell them – ideally overseas, resulting in expansion in wealth from overseas expenditure. Nothing creates employment faster.

Fifth argument. We need lasting jobs not interim, start-stop employment. Infrastructure projects take forever to plan and get off the ground and typically they have absurdly long pay-back periods (and low associated employment once they are complete).  Just look at the Titanic “signature project”. Years of planning, hordes of construction workers and a big launch.  Now a few ticket tellers and lots of people wondering how the thing will sustain itself.

And I could go on. But I have paying clients to support and work to complete.  But Durkan, Wilson and all the other lefties in Stormont need to get a grip. Austerity WILL get worse. The block grant will decline in real terms and possibly in actual terms. Therefore, for the Executive, there has to be a Plan B other than continued begging bowl politics. We need a focus on stimulating proper, export driven businesses here. We need more businesses moving here and creating the skills needed in this economy. We need a regionally focused economic policy – and we could start by reducing corporation tax quickly, biting the bullet in terms of block grant reduction, and focusing on building sustainable, commercially led employment – squeezing out the public sector.

Wilson and Durkan will not get their way. Things will get worse before they get better. But both need to start facing up to the fact that bitter pills will have to be swallowed.

Guest Post by Andrew Copson – British Humanist Association

Take action today on Bishops in Parliament.

On Monday the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill reported supporting the Government’s proposals to keep reserved seats for Bishops in reform of the Lords. This will maintain and effectively strengthen the influence of the Church in Parliament. There is no disguising that it is a blow to hopes for a fair reform.

The Government’s Draft House of Lords Reform Bill proposes to increase the proportion of the Bishops from 3% of appointed peers to anything between 12% and 17% of appointed peers, depending on the eventual size of a reformed chamber. If the Government’s proposals were enacted, Anglican Bishops would likely outnumber SNP, Plaid Cymru, DUP, SDLP, and Green Peers combined.

Our new campaign website - holyredundant.org.uk - has multiple ways you can help spread the word. We need your support to demonstrate how widely shared is our conviction that it is time for the Bishops to go, and boost the chances of humanist MPs and peers in Parliament as they attempt to amend the Bill.

They can’t do this alone – they need your help today. We have provided them with the text of the amendments they need to challenge these plans. Now we need you to provide the popular support that will make others vote for those amendments.

We all need to email our MPs right away (you can do so by following this link where we have set up an easy automatic email for you to send with just a few clicks) and let them know that we don’t support the recommendations of the Committee and are calling for an end to the reserved places for Bishops in Parliament.

The more MPs that realise their constituents feel strongly about this, the better our chances are of the Bill being amended and the unfair anachronism of reserved religious places in our national parliament can be brought to its overdue end.

Andrew Copson - Chief Executive, British Humanist Association

BBC Radio Ulster logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m one of the panellists on tomorrow’s Seven Days on Radio Ulster.

This is a special edition of the programme to market the Titanic anniversary.  We’ll be looking at some of the political, social and economic issues that were making the news in 1912 – trying to look at parallels with the world today.

More of the same. Mike Nesbitt is one of the hopefuls to take over the UUP "chalice". Image via Wikipedia

So Tom has finally thrown in the towel and we are to have another UUP leader.

Alex Kane does a good job over at the News Letter in outlining the likely contenders and just how poisoned a chalice the UUP leadership is. Although I’d question whether the UUP is even up to a chalice these days. More a nice cuppa tea with a ham sandwich (made with pan-loaf and margarine).  Served in a nice, fusty Orange Hall.

The UUP has been dying for years. And, according to the various whispers I’m receiving via the bongo drums of the the political anorak class (the metaphors are all over the place in that sentence, sorry) defections will continue in the coming weeks. Some big-hitter UUP members, I’m told.  Although I wasn’t aware there were any of those left.

As Alex points out in his article, the new-fangled NI Conservative thingy is due to be launched in a few weeks. I gather that the plan is that this will be pitched as very much a cross-community entity. Some Alliance types have been sniffing around it and the grandees of the Conservative Party in London will publicly bless the thing. However, as I’ve written before, without a better leadership roster in front of it the new Party will fizzle little brighter than than a new-leadered UUP.

The problem is that the new political order of DUP/Shinner coalition is bedding down. The two Parties are made for each other because they both want the same things i.e. more power wrested from Westminster.  Collectively the Dupshinners are the manifestation of Ulster-Irish nationalism – the NI equivalent of the Scots Nats.

The DUP and Shinners are politically melded like the two tubes in an epoxy-resin kit. And tit-for-tat niceness is growing.  Soon we’ll have an announcement that Marty will meet some Royal on the next visit and there will be cries of “Wow” from the establishment and then Peter Robbo will arrange to wear a big green hat on St Paddy’s Day. And then Marty will join Garvaghy Road LOL or something. The whole consensus thing gets more and more ridiculous by the minute.

The only means of breaking this merry-go-round green and orange trading-off is to do something to undermine it.  The UUP is just too stupid and lacking in talent to know where to start and the NI Conservatives haven’t got sufficient media attention or leadership savviness.

Have a play with this.  

Start small and then go big to get just some idea of how puny I, you and we are in the scheme of things.  Although my dog Beau is an obvious exception to this rule.

Reblogged from PolicyNI:

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This splendid piece, by Newton Emerson, was featured on Hearts & Minds (and was kindly uploaded by Mick Fealty of SluggerO’Toole).

Emerson does a great job in outlining how Stormont has become a vast scare-story machine designed to extract as much money as possible from the Exchequer.  And the office of the First Minister does precisely nothing to do anything about it.  

Read more… 11 more words

Needless to say, I don’t think we do need religion any more – indeed, I wonder if we ever did.  We managed to survive, as a species, before most of the “modern” mono-theistic religions were conjured-up.  We managed to thrive, indeed.  Perhaps part of the reason for our success was the ethical basis of our relations with our fellow human beings: reciprocal altruism, to lapse into Dawkins-speak.

Atheists and Humanists tend to be better at articulating ethics, these days, than people of faith.  Part of the reason is that – as the evidence shows – free thinkers tend to be more intelligent.  But, also, Atheists tend not to claim membership of a tribe or gang that assumes moral superiority over others.  Unlike religionists, Atheists don’t have to sign-up to a tithe-based club, stick to a liturgy, or issue repetitive chants.  Free thought is our only mantra.

Check out 4ThoughtTV to watch some of the previous episodes.  I recommend Trevor Moore’s film. He does an especially good job at explaining that religion of the noodly appendage: The Church of the Flying Spaghetti.  You’ll have to wait to later in the week to see mine.  Or watch it on Channel 4, 7.55pm, Thursday.  Let’s hope the edit gets my best side.