Fitaloon at MicroShaft

Gordon Brown’s statement that the Defence Budget has gone up every year is Fiction. That is the fact. Cathy Newman also describes Brown’s use of  “near cash” terms as “Fiscally Illiterate“.

So during PMQ’s Gordon Brown has uttered yet more Brownies and yet again he will get away with them unless both Cameron and Clegg hammer him again and again at PMQ’s about this.

It is time to get the gloves off and call a Liar a Liar, none of the pissing about, some direct straightforward words that any Tommy, Dick and Harry will understand, no more disingenuous, no more being  economical with the actualité, no more revelation of a totally fissured and dysfunctional government, no more Brownies, call them what they are in reality LIES.

Only then will the public begin to understand what this man has done to Britain, He has turned this one geat nation into Broken Britain, and he wants, by any means, to have Five more years to destroy it totally. He tried to tell us this morning that he wouldn’t let us down, sadly this is yet another of his reworked phrases, he told us this back in 2007 at his first Labour Conference as Prime Minister, and even more sadly he has not just let us down, he has totally bankrupted this Country, to try and say he won’t let us down down  is beyond belief.

This is no time for a Broken and Discredited Prime Minister and his Broken and Discredited Government.

Let’s just look at a it more of what Cathy Newman tell us about Gordon’s Lies:

The analysis
In real terms – i.e. taking account of inflation – Gordon Brown is wrong. Figures given to us by the Ministry of Defence (see table below) show the defence budget fell year-on-year in real terms on four occasions since 1997 when Labour came to power – in 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2007.

Worse, the defence budget also fell below 1997 levels (again in real terms) on four occasions – 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002.

“Near cash”
The MoD says Gordon Brown wasn’t talking about real terms growth, but was instead referring to “near cash” rises in the defence budget. “Near cash” is the simplest form of the military budget, the most basic cash figure – without inflation or depreciation taken into account.

According to the Institute For Fiscal Studies, inflation has to be factored in to make spending comparisons meaningful. So Brown was at the very least playing fast and loose with the figures by ignoring inflation.

Wrong again?
However, Gordon Brown also stated today in the Commons that the “expenditure of the Ministry of Defence has been rising in real terms under this government”. Taking him absolutely literally, “this government” was elected in 2005. But here he is also wrong. As we’ve seen just now, spending fell in real terms in 2007.

FactCheck likes a belt and braces approach, so we called several experts – including Mark Stoker, a military economist at the International Institute For Strategic Studies.

He pointed out NATO also provide accounts on defence budgets, and he reckons these numbers are more accurate.

Still falling
Looking at the NATO figures, the defence budget fell from £34.4bn in 2007 to £32.8bn in 2008.

“If you look at Nato’s figures Gordon Brown’s statement is incorrect,” says Stoker. “Either way, both sets of data indicate that the budget has not risen every year.”

Cathy Newman’s verdict
Defence spending has gone up in “near cash” terms, but it’s fiscally illiterate to use this measure, and the former chancellor knows it. The government is on firmer ground when it points out that the departmental budget is 10 per cent higher this year than in 1997, but FactCheck has established that Gordon Brown’s central claim that the defence budget has gone up every year is fiction.

This is Cathy Newman checking the facts, what she doesn’t mention that these are using figures compared against standard inflation, Sadly Defence Industry Inflation is much higher (5-10%) than normal inflation.

Vote for Change.

via The FactCheck Blog – Brown gets defensive about budgets.

Do listen to this

“Imagine a Tory donor who’d bought a company, run its pension fund into the ground, bought the assets back for pennies in the pound, who became a privy counsellor even though he wasn’t qualified while personally funding the leader’s leadership bid – they (sic) would be a massive story and yet somehow the BBC runs day after day on Lord Ashcroft, who as far as I can see has done nothing wrong, and gives Labour an easy ride. It takes me back to the tales we had of the champagne bottles in 1997 and I’m afraid the BBC remains biased and fails to ask the proper questions of those who are currently in power.”

Source HERE (scroll in 12 mins)

Iain Dale’s Diary: Quote of the Day: Graham Stuart MP on Lord Paul.

Bruce Anderson takes Brown to pieces for his utter contempt for the Army.

His final paragraph is on the money sadly

As a result of Mr Brown’s malfeasance – abetted by Mr Blair’s cowardice – men have died who should have lived: men have been crippled who could have escaped with minor injuries. All war leads to a butcher’s bill. Even with the best equipment, there comes the moment when discipline, training, group-bonding, patriotism and courage must inspire flesh and blood to stand up to lead and high explosive. Flesh and blood do not always win. The gods of battles choose the best and the bravest to dine with them in Valhalla. War means heart-rending sacrifices. It is the duty of prime ministers to minimise those sacrifices: few duties more solemn. This one has treated that duty with contempt. “You’ve ruined my life” he once yelled at Tony Blair. What nonsense, what pathetic nonsense. But lives have been lost, because Mr Brown would not do his duty and Tony Blair would not make him.

There is an error in the column when he says 1000 personnel were to be returned from Afghanistan, It should be Iraq, hopefully it will be corrected, but it takes no sting out of his correct and damning indictment of Gordon Brown.

We need to see more like this on other subjects in all the Nationals. Exposing the Brown Lies or Brownies between now and the General Election is essential in ensuring this man cane never again come anywhere near to power.

Vote for Change.

Bruce Anderson: Nothing incriminates Mr Brown like his contempt for the Army – Bruce Anderson, Commentators – The Independent.

First from Mandrake in the Telegraph.

Mandrake hears that one of the Prime Minister’s officials telephoned the British embassy in Kabul before the Conservative leader visited troops in Helmand Province in December to request that it did not co-operate with him.

“The aide made clear that Cameron’s trip should not be a success,” says my man in the Number 10 bunker. “He said there should be no ‘media availability’.”

Happily for Cameron, the request was ignored by officials and he was photographed meeting troops in Helmand.

Brown has been criticised for using previous military visits for party-political purposes. In 2007, he made his first trip to Iraq as Prime Minister in the week of the Tory party conference.

A No 10 spokesman denies the claim. “The embassy provided full support,” he adds.

Sounds just like the sort of thing Gordon would do, Happily it looks like the Military ignored his requests.

Contrast with this story from Michael Yon.

WAR TOURISTS, a footnote: Gordon Brown just hit Afghanistan again. Last year, several British officers told me that when Gordon Brown visited in 2009, the British military resisted helping Mr. Brown by not providing airlift. They said US helicopters had to ferry Mr. Brown. I do not know where the truth begins and ends with those statements, other than that British officers told me this as truth. Please recall that I was kicked out of British embed last year, apparently for raking the British government on helicopter shortages. (Some little birds have told me that I’ll likely have better friends in the next British government. Did meet with a British officer yesterday about embed during summer.)

Oh the Irony!

How Gordon Brown tried to ‘ambush’ David Cameron’s visit to Afghanistan – Telegraph.

The Telegraph and indeed News of the World have articles on the extent of which Unite and Charlie Whelan are bankrolling the Labour Party. The Telegraph has this:

Unite is said to wield great influence over Gordon Brown and the Government’s policies in return for financial support and the votes of its two million members.

Ministers echoed the union’s opposition to Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury, but stayed silent over Unite’s threat to cause travel misery through a strike of British Airways cabin crew.

The union’s political director, Charlie Whelan, is acting as an official aide to Gordon Brown having previously worked as his special adviser, and is expected to be given a formal role in the forthcoming general election campaign.

Eric Pickles, the Conservative Party chairman, said:

“It’s quite clear that Charlie Whelan and his cronies are taking over the Labour party.

“Gordon Brown’s subservience to union barons and their militant tendencies means Labour are incapable of making the right decisions for the country.

“It’s disgraceful that Labour are quite happy to take £10 million from Unite, the union masterminding the BA strikes and ask no questions.”

Unite has given Labour £10.78m in cash donations and a further £287,023 in benefits such as the use of premises and printing since it was formed in 2007, through a merger of the Transport & General Workers Union and Amicus.

Electoral Commission records show that in the last three months of 2009 alone, Unite made donations worth almost £880,000 to Labour, including local constituencies in marginal seats as well as the national party.

According to the Telegraph Unite and Charlie Whelan are using American style election techniques to target voters they know may be Labour voters and firm them up by:

..registering with its website, www.unite4labour.org, union activists can gain access to the home and mobile telephone numbers of other members and are encouraged to call them up.

The website states: “Last week we launched the constituency phone bank which enables you to call Unite members in the marginal seats we are supporting. Now we are asking for your help to call our members in these seats every week in our ‘Talk Thursdays’.”

Mr Whelan wrote on the website: “I’d urge all Unite members to visit Unite4Labour, register for the member only section and talk to your colleagues about the threat to jobs, skills, schools, hospitals and local services that the Tory spending cuts will mean.”

So here we have one of Brown’s “Forces from Hell” using his position in a union to help his old Boss. Whelan is also accused by some in the Labour party of stitching up safe Labour seats fro some of his Labour cronies. The sheer hypocrisy of Labour is beyond a joke.

Britain’s biggest union ‘takes over’ Labour after £11m donations – Telegraph.