A political system resting on professional party politicians is clearly fatal to all liberty and national well-being.

 - Richard Crossman (1907-74) Introduction to Bagehot’s "The English Constitution", 1867.

Jack Straw, Sectretary of State for Justice (yuck) has published a government White Paper*on the funding of political parties which, a quick skim suggests, is in favour of the taxpayers being fleeced by the state to keep political parties in business. Who’d have thought that, eh?! With the Labour Party on the verge of bankruptcy and the three main parties all seeing their memberships in flight, I’m sure the option of shaking down the British people for the eternal right to dominate power is all just a coincidence. Raedwald is putting it under the microscope.

Political parties are integral to our democratic system is the drivel by which the paper is introduced. Political parties have no constitutional status in the United Kingdom at all. We elect named individuals to represent us in Parliament, who may happen to be in a party. Those parties are merely free associations of like-minded (and not so like-minded) individuals who are free to join or leave those factions as they wish. The existence of those factions is completely irrelevent to the functioning of British government.

Jack Straw can yap and bark and howl for as long as he likes, I will never consent to my money being used to keep these liars and cheats and criminals in business. I will avoid, hide and evade taxes. They can put me in prison and I still will not consent to paying these vermin a penny.

* For ATW’s overseas chaps, a White Paper is commonly used by government to set out policy ahead of a Bill being introduced to parliament.

ATW’s COMMENTARIAT may - incredibly - include those who regard me as a bit of a nutter where the Queen, the British Constitution and the destruction of the Sovereignty of the British people is concerned. Yep, I have something of a bee in my bonnet on this and with good reason; our great nation has been subject to a coup d’etat. A slow motion coup d’etat it has been, but it is no less of a takeover by a foreign, hostile power for that.

How gratifying it is then to see that I am not alone. Archbishop Cranmer has a few words to say about the Treason committed by those in high office and the negligence of the so-called Monarch who is obliged by oath and law to defend our sovereignty (my emphasis):

One of the most significant aspects of the treaties of Rome, Maastricht, and Lisbon concerns the constitutional position of the Monarch. During her reign, Queen Elizabeth I stated: ‘To no power whatsoever is my crown subject save to that of Christ the King of Kings.’  Section Three of the Treason Felony Act of 1848 asserts that condemnation is incurred ‘If any person whatsoever shall, within the United Kingdom or without, compass, imagine, invent, devise or intend to deprive or depose our most gracious Lady the Queen…from the style, honour, or royal name of the imperial crown of the United Kingdom.’

The Treaty of Maastricht made the Queen subject to the European Union and a citizen of that Union. As a citizen of a different political entity and being subject to past and future judgements of the Court of the European Communities in Luxembourg, from which there is no appeal, her role as a constitutional monarch has been put into doubt. By the treaty, this Court was confirmed in authority over her courts, in which she was not previously arraignable. Her status as a citizen of the EU has rendered her, like the rest of the British people, ‘subject to the duties imposed thereby’.

Quite, Your Grace. The Treason Felony Act was drafted specifically to protect the position of the Sovereign and is still in full effect.  The style, honour, or royal name (King/Queen) bears no division. Like the state of being pregnant or the concept ‘unique’, one is or is not. The Queen is only so because she is the embodiment of the sovereignty of the British people and it is this embodiment that confers legitimacy on Parliament, via ‘the Crown in Parliament’.  If the British people are no longer sovereign, then Elizabeth Windsor can be Queen no longer.

A country cannot have two constitutions. The laws and constitution of the United Kingdom are diametrically opposed by European laws and the European Constitution. One has to submit to the other, and, as is observed and clearly stated, the Lisbon Treaty ‘takes primacy’. If the EU Constitution is superior to the British Constitution, at the point the Treaty was given Royal Assent the British Constitution was abolished. Since the EU is a military union, it has the means at its disposal to carry out its objectives.

Well said, Your Grace. No other conclusion is possible. The fulcrum of the British Constitution is that our sovereignty is vested in the Monarch. Remove that principle, or declare that Britons are no longer sovereign in their own land, all the rest crumbles.

Her Majesty the Queen has received petitions from the Lords, thousands upon thousands of letters from her subjects, and sworn affidavits withholding and withdrawing allegiance and obedience to Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, until such time as she is free to exercise her lawful authority.

Me among them.

And still she gives her assent to a Bill about which she can be in no doubt with regard to its contentious nature, the illegality of its implementation following the Irish rejection, or its illegitimacy under our Common Law birthright.

To those who will cite the ‘convention’ that the Queen acts on her Ministers’ advice, Patrick Vessey deals with that over at the Libertarian Party UK blog:

This is mere precedent, however, not Constitutional fact. Her Majesty does indeed have the authority to withhold Assent, as this is one of the reserve powers fully vested in the Monarch.

Absolutely. There are those who also raise the dread spectre of a ‘constitutional crises’ if Her Majesty were to tell her Ministers that she is bound by law and oath to protect and uphold the British Constitution, to govern in accordance with the laws and customs of we, the People, from whom the Monarch and Parliament derive there power. Well, here we are, a subject people of a foreign, hostile power, subject to foreign courts and foreign laws with a puppet Parliament and a Queen rendered suzerein - we already HAVE a constitutional crises!

King Harold lost his Kingdom a thousand years ago on Senlac Hill, but at least he put up a fight. Queen Elizabeth II simply signed it all away on the advice of traitors. It cannot be said that she was duped or ill-prepared for her role. She was rigorously schooled in the fundamentals of our Constitution when young. Patrick Vessey at LPUK goes speculates as to why she has behaved in this way by quoting one of our better commentators on the Monarchy, Dr David Starkey. His conclusion is one that I’ve long suspected also, that for all the style and grace with which she’s represented us, the Queen just isn’t that interested:  

Her lack of curiosity extends, [Starkey] thinks, to the history of the monarchy itself. In 2003 Starkey was asked to curate an exhibition on Elizabeth I at the National Maritime Museum. After it was hung, he had lunch with the Queen. It was not a success for either of them. She was piqued – as he tells it – because her gin and Dubonnet did not arrive quickly enough; he was piqued because she showed no interest whatsoever in his show. It took him a while to work out why. "I didn’t realise that she had no interest whatever in her predecessors. Her history begins with her great grandfather. That is it. It really is it."

As I said, she is the Worst Monarch Ever. If she cannot bring herself to face down her ministers and defend the sovereignty of the British people, she ought to confirm her abdication and let us continue without her.

Compare and contrast.

Sexual health clinics are available in nearly 30% of secondary schools in England, according to a survey. Research by the Sex Education Forum suggested one in six on-site clinics offered the morning-after pill, and all provided condoms or pregnancy tests.

The survey comes after official figures for England and Wales found the number of abortions among girls aged under 16 rose by 10% to 4,376 in 2007. In the under 14s, abortions rose by 21% from 135 in 2006 to 163 last year. The number of abortions in all women rose by 2.5% to reach an all time high of almost 200,000.

We need MORE sex clinics in our schools, right?

OH NO! As if was not bad enough that Ireland has rejected the EU Constitution, it is now reported that the European Central Bank’s dilemma over interest rates has deepened as new figures pointed to a “toxic cocktail” of stagnant growth and spiralling inflation. 

Jean-Claude Trichet, the President of the ECB, hinted this month that borrowing costs would rise to control inflation, which has soared to a record 3.7 per cent. However, there was growing speculation that the ECB may keep rates at 4 per cent at its next rate meeting on July 3 after European manufacturing and service companies reported declining activity for the first time in five years and corporate sentiment in Germany plunged. The RBS/Markit Eurozone Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for both the manufacturing and service sectors fell to a five-year low of 49.5 in June, down from 51.1 in May. Any figure below 50 indicates contraction.

A contracting EU wide economy but only one blunt ECB nstrument to control inflation across diverse Nations. Economic disaster beckons…

Wonder what you make of the news that Zimbabwe will play in cricket’s World Twenty 20 Cup in England next year - threatening to make a mockery of Gordon Brown’s pledge to ‘stand up’ to Robert Mugabe. Earlier this year, the Prime Minister made clear that he planned to bring in a ban in protest at the tyrant’s regime. And as the former British colony sunk further into bloodshed and chaos at the hands of Mugabe’s thugs, it was confirmed yesterday that Zimbabwe’s team will compete in the cricketing showcase.

Can I say that I think this is a good idea?

Invite the Zimbabwaen cricketeers, and ensure Mugabe himself comes over to Blighty.

Then arrest him, put him on trlal for war crimes, and execute him.

Howzat?

Another day, another murder – peace abounds.

I see that a young man has been shot dead in Londonderry a gang of masked men in the republican stronghold of the Creggan. His crime was to deliver a pizza.

Who would have thought that could happen? Masked men? Terrorising innocent people? Street execution? In Northern Ireland??

For DECADES, terrorism has been a way of life for a certain type of person in this area. They have seen their most senior terrorist and role model -  Martin McGuinness – raised up to the position of Deputy First Minister. The wages of appeasing terrorism is more terrorism and this is what we see on our streets. Still, nobody supports this new bunch  of killers, right? I mean, when previous masked men carried out equally revolting murders on the streets of the Creggan they did so with popular support but these new terrorists have NO mandate for murder  – which is why they will be turned in by the local community, right?

The Londonderry heirs do what they are good at – killing.

It’s thirty years since Britain last suffered a crippling strike by Public Sector workers resulting in household rubbish going uncollected and the dead left unburied. Socialism in action for those of us able to remember those dark days. That event marked the death knell for the Labour Government and ushered in the Thatcher era! I see that Unison – the Trade Union representing many groups of key public sector workers – have now voted to go on strike. This may mean, and we must be brave and face into this prospect, that social workers cease their work. Thank God for that then I trust this strike proceeds as planned so the people of the UK can see just how greedy many in the State sector have become under their Zanulabour masters decade in power. Time to boot out Labour, shrink the State sector, and ensure social workers are employed more usefully – cleaning toilets? Bring the strike on – when it comes to many of these groups there will be no way of discerning that they ARE on strike!!!

I have a great interest in the life and writings of the remarkable William Penn.

I used to live just a few miles from the village of Penn in Buckinghamshire and although there is no direct connection between that Penn family and the founder of Pennsylvania, I have always enjoyed reading the thoughts of that great Englishman. I have a little book by Penn called "Some Fruits of solitude in reflections and maxims" which was published back in 1693 and I often read it for inspiration. I keep it in my bedside cabinet,

I thought the following might be a nice quote to start the week… 

"Love is indeed Heaven upon Earth; since Heaven above would not be Heaven without it: For where there is not Love; there is Fear: But perfect Love casts out Fear. "

I came across this very interesting post over on Gorse Fox -  a most agreeable and thoughtful blogger of my acquaintance. It’s on the subject of renewables and it’s on the science please note. Professor David J C MacKay of the Cambridge University Physics Department has some fascinating conclusions…

"MacKay offers maps and figures indicating the staggering scale of the engineering. Britain would be literally covered with — and girdled by — massive wind farms, tidal barriers and wave barrages, and every sizeable body of water in the land would rise and fall to the strange new tides of the national grid. We would have literally rebuilt the British Isles as a single mighty renewable generator, pouring concrete and erecting steel on a scale so far matched only by human habitation — industrialising the land and sea in a way that would make intensive agribusiness look like a wildlife refuge. And still we’d be importing power."

Shall we tell  Greenpeace?