Shirley Williams was reviewing the papers with the Spectator’s Fraser Nelson on this morning’s Andrew Marr show.
Remembrance Sunday was obviously discussed. Shirley described a story of a boy of 12 sent to Somme after lying his way into the Army and his mother got him sent back. Of course, by that time, he had seen so many horrors.
She also added that it’s not just the lives lost we have to commemorate:
Many get a life sentence as those injured suffer for the rest of their lives.
She described the use of IEDs as “colossally effective but deeply cruel”, a weapon that’s inexpensive but devastating.
Shirley drew attention to a story which she described as “bubbling under”, 12 traders were suspended for trying to fix the foreign exchange rate. While it wasn’t illegal, she and Nelson agreed that it was grossly immoral, affecting anyone who had to change currencies, from businesses to people going on holiday to the tune of £3 trillion a day.
There was then an interesting discussion about Theresa May. Fraser Nelson wanted to big her up as the “action woman of government” who was getting crime and immigration down. Shirley tackled him on that and was quite clear that crime is coming down anyway and has been for quite a long time under all governments. She talked about how May is appealing to right wing of the Conservative party to keep them sweet as she will need their votes should she ever become leader. Shirley reckons she sees herself as a future Prime Minister.
Green taxes
Andrew Marr stopped a potential spat on whether climate change was happening or not as the conversation got round to green taxes. Shirley was clear that there was only one fair way for green taxes to be employed:
Ed Davey is right to say we should have green taxes but it must come out of income tax in the end you can’t hit people with big families and not much income.
Finally, she condemned the decision of Cabinet Secretary to hold back vital memos exchanged between the White House and No 10 to the Chilcott Enquiry. She said that the Iraq war was a disaster and it was important we know why. She added that we now won’t learn as much from inquiry as we should.
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5 Comments
Crime is not going down. Crimes reported has gone from being no crimed if any remote connection to another and/or not being accepted as a crime in its own right in the first place. Crime being dealt with is purely selection and not evidence based.. Full evidence in support of my claim.
Melanie, the British Crime Survey confirms police figures, that crime is falling. What is the full evidence you refer to?
The question remains is crime falling or the amount of criminals caught and charged for each separate offence??? The police charge for say a major offence carried out by A,B and C. The minor offences within the main crime are disregarded therefore eliminating them as crimes. I ask again and the question remains, are crimes recorded or just criminals? i.e Home Office Counting rules No crime when connected to other crime somewhat gives false accounts.
From the British Crime Survey website http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/period-ending-march-2013/stb-crime–period-ending-march-2013.html: “Latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimate that there were 8.6 million crimes in England and Wales, based on interviews with a representative sample of households and resident adults in the year ending March 2013. This represents a 9% decrease compared with the previous year’s survey. This latest estimate is the lowest since the survey began in 1981 and is now less than half its peak level in 1995.”
Note, this is nothing to do with police statistics on reported crime, which incidentally shows a decrease of 7% over the same period.
Hang on if green taxes come out of income tax then they are no longer green taxes at all. The reason for loading the costs of renewables and energy efficiency measures onto energy bills is to encourage us all to be more energy efficient in order to keep our bills low.
We need to tackle the profiteering and cartel like behaviour of the big 6 energy companies not kow tow to their demands to fund renewables and energy efficiency measures from general taxation. We also need to introduce measure s to ensure landlords do make their properties energy efficient to prevent tenants being lumbered with high bills they can do little about.