Green fingered!

If George Osborne MP, shadow chancellor, wants to increase the proportion of revenue taken from "green" taxes, he could always reduce non-green taxes!

Unfortunately, he seems intent on out-taxing Labour!

"I think the question George Osborne failed to answer is: is he really saying that he thinks taxes on motorists should be going up now at a time when petrol prices are so high?" - Economic secretary to the Treasury, Ed Balls MP (Labour!)

All equal before the law?

If Keith Davis had stabbed his wife to death with a bread knife at their home in East Sussex, would he only have been jailed for three years?

Would it have made any difference if they had only been married two years, they had a volatile relationship and they had been drinking alcohol that afternoon even though they were supposed to be looking after their three year old grandson?

Prison populations

"Someone who does not know any black families would find it hard to understand the anger surrounding the over-representation of black men in jails" - Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality.

Are these 'black men' innocent or have they been convicted in a court of law?

Have their crimes affected the local community?

"I'm sorry, but you should understand that as black men are over-represented in prison, Joel Smith will go free. We've got targets you know...."

Government extremism?

How likely is it that the Government would ever close a Muslim school that promoted "isolationism" and "extremism"?

Are such claims by Ruth Kelly merely to create good headlines!?!

Obesism

If the British Fertility Society consider that obese women should be denied IVF treatment as they "are less likely to get pregnant and more likely to encounter health problems", are they guilty of blatant obesism? They have potentially offended 13m adults in England!

Can obese women obtain a tax refund if they are denied treatment!?!

Do they withold treatment to smokers or those relying on state benefits?

Unfunded tax cuts?

If Gordon Brown can fund public sector expenditure by an ever increasing budget deficit, why should he be disturbed by "unfunded tax cuts"!?!

Health priorities?

Up to 50 children aged under two in Wales and England die from pneumococcal infections each year.

Does England offer every child up to the age of two the pneumococcal disease vaccine or will it only be available for Welsh children?

A duty to stamp out poor tax cuts!

A report in The Sunday Times newspaper says one in five Britons - the equivalent of 10m adults - say they are considering leaving the country because they feel they are paying too much tax.

Will they stay if Conservatives cut stamp duty on share purchases or if they propose substantial cuts in income!?!

General Election victory?

At which General election did the UK electorate vote for ever increasing levels of immigration?

High-level community orders

Why were only 21% of adults in England and Wales jailed when they were sentenced for shoplifting?

Will "high level community orders" deter them from shoplifting rather than jail?

How many of the 14,000 fines issued for shop lifting were actually paid in 2005?

Institutionally Incompetent?

Are the Metropolitan Police "Institutionally incompetent" rather than "Institutionally racist"!?!

A quote

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. - John Stuart Mill - Courtesy of House of Dumb.

Another Commission!

The Commission on Integration and Cohesion starts work in September and will tour the UK, looking at how towns, cities and communities tackle challenges such as segregation and social or economic divisions between different ethnic groups.

How likely is it that the Commission will conclude that there should be an annual limit on immigration?

Update to assuage Alfie's fears: "The Commission will be headed by Darra Singh, the leader of Ealing Council, and its 13 other commissioners include academics, youth activists, academics and representatives of the police, trade unions, business, local government, voluntary groups and the Interfaith Network.

..and no one from the wider indigenous population!

MPs' pay

Will MPs' pay be undercut by the influx of immigrants or are they safely immune to pay competition!?!

Cameron's own Pole

Will David Cameron ensure more Polish candidates are short-listed by local Conservative Associations so that 600,000 immigrants are represented in Parliament!?!

If we do not have proper representation of women and black and ethnic minority candidates in Parliament, we will be missing out on huge amounts of talent. - David Cameron

Indian Healthcare

Why should Britain commit £252m to save the lives of 1 million Indian children each year when India would rather spend $3.3bn on it's space programme?

Labour's dirty little secret?

If one of Labour's priorities is wealth re-distribution, why does the Treasury dismiss Stephen Byers' call to scrap inheritance tax as a "necessary means of raising revenue for public services" rather than funding those on benefits!?!

First choice?

It is not just Muslims who end up getting bombed or killed. Foreign policy just seems to be lacking a humanitarian dimension. - Zarina Javed of Huddersfield.

When will Zarina stop considering herself to be Muslim first and British second but rather British first, Muslim second?

US aid

Why is America bothering to help the Lebanon with $230m of aid?

No one in the Middle East will be grateful!

Benefits of prison?

How did prisoners receive £13m of jobseekers allowance and other benefits over the last three years when they should only qualify for payments by signing in every other week!?!

Travelling whilst white & working class

Did Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei oppose the profiling of potential English football hooligans during the World Cup in June?

Grammar school success?

32.4% of all A-levels earned in Northern Ireland were 'A' grades compared to an average of just 24% across the rest of the UK.

Will Northern Ireland's performance fall when Grammar schools in the province are scrapped!?!

Not crap

"Rumours that I said American foreign policy in the Middle East is crap are crap" - John Prescott perhaps!?!

Immigrant welfare

What does the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants think about triple killer Rohan Chung who used the old "missed the flight" ruse to overstay his welcome in the UK?

Chung, 30, had been deported twice from the UK to Jamaica but managed to return using false names.

The 'I' word?

Why is the BBC unable to say what has caused "growth in the working age population" to explain the continuing rise in the UK's unemployment rate?

Could it be immigration!?!

Poor Joe

If "Joseph" fled to the Gambia to escape war-torn Sierra Leone, why was he allowed to seek asylum in Britain when he was already safe!?!

How will "Joseph" find his wife by living in a council flat in Manchester!?!

Prison release

Why is the Home Office not prepared to deport foreign prisoners early if they need to free up cells in overcrowded prisons?

Pardon me?

When will the Ministry of Defence pardon the 1,000 UK troops who have deserted since the start of the Iraq war?

Sets 'can make teachers feel thick'

Research suggests that teachers placed in charge of high-ability sets at secondary schools often feel stigmatised as "thick" according to a new study!

Many trainee teachers are struggling to pass tests in numeracy, literacy and information technology.

Hezbollah's hollow victory?

If Hezbollah are "hoist[ing] the banner of victory" following the month-long conflict with Israel, why is Britain sending an extra £6m in aid to the Lebanon rather than Israel?

Student debt

What are the average debt levels of Welsh and Scottish students? Only English undergraduates can owe £9,000 in tuition fees over three years?

Outrageous!

If some Muslims are sufficiently "outraged" at plans to use passenger profiling at Britain's airports, will they, erm, blow themselves up!?!

Squatters' responsibilities

Why should the taxpayer subsidise a squatter who has managed to spend nearly all of a £710k windfall in just two years?

He has £50,000 left which will allow him to pay the rent on his two-bedroom Hampstead flat for another two years.

What's the point in investing the money in property or something like that?

Did his generosity encompass paying twenty years worth of council tax!?!

Proud to be British?

A lot of the kids involved are from third-generation unemployed families and some of them have been asking their youth workers why Polish people need to come here, why they can’t stay in their own country. - Spokesman for Moray Council, planning to send teenage troublemakers to Poland to learn about tolerance.

The politics of terror

"No government worth its salt would stay in power in my view, and no government worth its salt, would be supported by the British people if our foreign policy or any other aspect of policy was being dictated by terrorists."

"That is not the British way, it is antithetical to our very central values. We decide things in this country by democracy, not under the threat of terrorism." - John Reid, Home Secretary.

In other news:
The IRA 'has ceased its criminality'

Tough A-levels?

There is a general misconception that the 'A' level has become impossible to fail and that A grades are handed out like sweets - Schools Minister Jim Knight.

"National figures are likely to show that almost all passed, with about 23% of entries being awarded the top grade."

Airline Security

Fears grow that Government restrictions on hand luggage have gone too far!

Collective Punishment?

Are all air passengers being penalised because the Government is not prepared to use racial and religious profiling when identifying high risk passengers?

NHS Direct

NHS Direct needs to save £15m, close 12 call centres and cut 800 jobs if it is to become "more effective and efficient".

Who let it become ineffective and inefficient? It was only created in 1997!

Carbon Audits

The results of the carbon audit for 10, Downing Street are exclusively available here!

Fairly good

Installation of energy efficient light bulbs.

Turning down thermostats.

Very bad

Holiday in Barbados the next day.

Caravan rustlers

Why are Police taking no further action against three individuals who stole a caravan yet were spotted and chased by a neighbour flying a microlight!?!

Iraqi terror threat?

What prevents the BBC from mentioning the religious background of Rauf Mohammed, an "Iraqi man [who] 'filmed terror targets'"? around London?

Should there be an independent judicial inquiry into radicalisation of young Iraqis?

Traffic congestion goes pop!

Should the Government have a policy on population growth if it is looking at ways of reducing traffic congestion?

Victory for Bloggers!

Why is the BBC unable to provide links to blogs "which scrutinise media coverage of the Middle East for bias" following news that Reuters have removed doctored photos taken by freelance journalist Adnan Hajj?

Shadow Economy?

The Times reports that bonuses will be available for Olympic contractors who employ a pre-agreed percentage of black and ethnic minority employees.

How can contractors earn the bonus if it is illegal to only recruit black and ethnic minority workers?

What happens if the skills base of the local black and ethnic minority are not appropriate for the job vacancies?

Air tax

How can the "poorest in society" afford to holiday abroad if they are 'struggling' on benefits!?!

Limited discrimination

If Met. Police Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur recognises that "some young Muslims are becoming radicalised", why is he surprised that "passenger profiling" may "indirectly discriminat[e] against Muslims"?

Limited resources must always be used as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Union Pay

The TUC have launched a website so that employees can compare their pay and pensions with those of their bosses.

Why have they excluded the pay and pensions details of trades unions!?!

Champagne Socialist?

How will former Scottish Socialist party leader Tommy Sheridan spend his £200,000 windfall?

Will he give the money to charity, use it to reduce Scottish poverty or spend it on a deluxe gold-plated game of Scrabble!?!

The Scottish Socialist Party is Scotland’s trail-blazing, anti-establishment party. We reject the bland conformism of the mainstream parties who accept without question a economic system built on privilege, inequality and greed. - Scottish Socialist Party website.

Bankrupt Britain?

Does Gordon Brown empathise with the ever increasing number of people being driven into bankruptcy?

Soft on crime, soft on the causes of crime?

Why have plans to double the sentencing powers of magistrates been delayed?

Are their too few prison places to accommodate the new arrivals?

Unreasonable spending?

If John Charman believes that £20m is "impossible for any reasonable person to spend in their lifetime", why is he worried about a £48m divorce settlement that leaves him with just £83m!?!

Flash in the pan Gordon

What is Gordon Brown's view on the current Middle East crisis?

Hiding behind the shield of paternity leave is not appropriate for someone with serious pretensions of succeeding Tony Blair as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party.

He should be demonstrating his leadership credentials during the current crisis, not his cowardice.

"Bloody awful" schools

Is it better to have a few "bloody awful" schools with "bloody awful" pupils or many "awful" schools, each with enough "awful" pupils to disrupt the educational progress of everyone else?

Voting with their feet?

Why would anyone want to leave the United Kingdom after nine years of Labour Governments?

Young people were the most likely to want to leave, with a quarter saying they were hoping to live abroad.

When asked why they would go, the most important reasons were a better quality of life.

According to official figures, record numbers of people have been emigrating with 350,000 having left in 2004 - up a third on ten years.

Indefinitely short

How can a serial sex attacker be jailed 'indefinitely' if he will be eligible for parole in just two-and-a-half years time!?!

How long must he wait before being transferred to an open prison?

Prison hospitals...

What discourages one-third of female prisoners from being reconvicted within two years? The fear of returning to prison or are they simply not caught re-offending!?!

Closing prisons to stop re-offending is like closing hospitals to reduce waiting lists!

Zimbabwe's opposition

Why do Zimbabweans with links to opposition parties ever claim asylum in the UK?

It should be easier for them to continue their struggle from a neighbouring country rather than living thousands of miles away with their colonial oppressors!

Health cheque!

Why was there a nine month wait for Roy Thayer's angioplasty treatment at the Hammersmith Hospital NHS Trust when they could operate privately immediately!?!

Doctors told the father of two he risked a fatal heart attack at any time.

but

he would have been seen on the NHS earlier if his condition was thought to be urgent...

PS: Will the Hammersmith Hospital NHS Trust be tightening up on it's credit control in future!?!

Compensation payments

£800,000: Compensation for Helen Green, whose colleagues stonewalled her, laughed in her face, blew raspberries and told her: "You stink".

£110,000: Compensation for Martine Wright, who lost both legs in the terrorist attacks in London last July.

Occupancy tax

Do single people need to pay an 'Occupancy tax' to encourage them to live more 'space-efficiently'?

Single people are currently penalised for living ineffiently as they only receive a 25% discount on council tax whilst there is no single occupancy discount for the TV licence either!