The UK is Sicker than Italy

July 1, 2008 · Filed Under UK · 17 Comments

Over on Man of Roma’s thoughtful blog, I made a bold statement. What I said is that the UK is in a greater state of decline than Italy.

Now, I can’t go around saying things like this without giving some evidence, so here it is.

Senseless violence - stories of knifings and shootings seem to be an almost daily occurrence, and the culprits, more often than not, come from cultures which are not strictly English. This leads to the second piece of evidence.

Appalling levels of integration. Britain opened the flood gates to immigrants many years ago, but did little else. Now there are Islamic terror cells springing up all over the place. I mean, was it a good idea to encourage people with such diverse religious beliefs to come to the UK? Or are we just seeing the results of yet more politicians who simply stay in power and do little else?

State education quality is dire. The politically correct bunch have managed to achieve their dubious aim. This aim was to eliminate competition and make it easy for anyone with less than half a brain to obtain some qualifications. And just about anyone can get degrees now, and good ones too. Why? Simple, the universities receive greater funding if more people pass, especially if they pass with better grades. Even secondary education has become so performance oriented that quality is at rock bottom levels.

Many English people want to leave the UK. English TV is full of programs about finding a dream home in any number of locations around the world. You can find more than a few Brits dotted all over the world, including quite a number in Italy. People are proud to be British, but pleased to escape.

The formerly venerable House of Lords has become full of government cronies who are politically correct to the point of insanity. They seem to take respect for human rights to extreme lengths. In the UK now, if you come from some country with a crackpot regime, murder a few people, and are caught, you need have no fear of being deported. All because the lovie dovies fear that you may come to a sticky end in your country of origin. Really those who continue to practice their wicked ways need to be kicked out and face the consequences of their actions, then at least others would think twice about coming to the UK and wrecking lives.

The great British bobbie has been legislated out of existence, just about. Would you believe that British policemen are actually leaving the country to find work in countries where their services are better appreciated? You can read more about the former English policeman behind the Copper’s Blog who is now in Canada in my ‘The Dark Side of the UK and the Free Press‘ post.

I’m sure others can give more examples as to why post-Blair Britain is no longer great. Do I think Blair did great things for Britain. No. If anything, the man dragged the place down even faster.

At the end of the day though, it’s not too much of a surprise that the UK should be spiralling downwards even faster than Italy. The UK is ten years ahead of Italy in many respects, which means it hit a trough more recently. And the UK suffers, in the same way as Italy, from that bane of modern society - the career politician.

Remember Neil Kinnock - former head of the Labour party? He hated people with posh accents, but with his knighthood, and all the dosh he makes from the European Parliament, this good socialist is laughing all the way to the champagne bar, as many career politicos do. They would make, sorry, are great actors.

You can say what you like about Italy, but at least the place has not become politically correct to the point of self destruction.

Does the UK have equivalents of Di Pietro and Beppe Grillo, or, even better Clementina Forleo? I’m a bit out of touch, so enlighten me. If the UK does not, it sure as heck needs them.

Tags: blair, Britain, decline, downfall, government, Italy, Kinnock, murder, news, Politics, society, UK

Italy - From Bad, to Much Worse

June 14, 2008 · Filed Under Italian news · Comment

It’s been an eventful but tragic week in Italy, but it looks as though things here are going to go from bad to worse, much worse.

Work Related Deaths

Quite a number of people have, alas, lost their lives at work this week. First, there was an incident in Sicily which led to the death of six workers. Then, near Milan, two illegal immigrant Egyptian building workers died when the scaffolding they were on collapsed under them, causing them to fall around 20 metres. Finally, two other unfortunate individuals died in work related accidents in Sardinia and Sicily.

Technically, it is safer to go on a tour of duty in Iraq then it is to work in Italy. Italy’s politicians are humming and aahing as usual, but have not decided what, if anything, to do about this poor state of affairs.

Corruption a Go Go

Berlusconi is pushing through his anti-phone tapping measures, and in doing so, will make Italy an even easier place in which to pursue corrupt practices.

The new anti-phone tapping legislation is very much old school Berlusconi, in that the new law is really designed to keep all his friends immune from just about any form of prosecution based on accusations of corruption. Italian law enforcement agencies, and the magistrates whom Berlusco detests, will now find it just about impossible to gather enough evidence to bring people to justice.

Even Less to be Spent on Road Accident Prevention

The changes to the ICI property tax, meaning that less income will be generated local authorities, will lead to even less being spent on preventative road safety measures in Italy, which already suffers from some of the highest fatal road accident levels in Europe.

Apparently, Switzerland spends 25 Euros per capita on road safety, France 23 Euros, Belgium 10 Euros, and the UK 5 Euros per head.

Italy, on the other hand spends around 1 Euro per head, which will fall to 70 Eurocents, after the revisions to the ICI system are implemented.

Naples

The out of control refuse mismanagement situation down in Naples continues to smoulder away. And the unhappy state of affairs really is starting to trash the reputation of the ‘Made in Italy’ brand.

The reawakening of Fascism?

Last, but by no means least, in a fun move by Italy’s intelligentsia, the government has decided to use to the Italian army to enforce law and order at street level.

Around 2,500 troops in full battle dress (possibly a slight exaggeration…), are to be used to patrol the streets of Italy’s major towns and cities in order to combat increasing levels of crime.

The expression ‘martial law’ springs to mind.

Gordon Bennet, if this is what a strong government in Italy gets up to, bring back the lesser of two evils, good old weak unstable Italian government. I nearly fell over when I read about this.

Talk about extreme overreaction.

Tags: army, corruption, crime, death, Facisim, government, Italian, Italy, made in Italy, Naples, news, phone tapping, refuse, road accidents, road safety, rubbish, trash, troops, Work

U-Turn, U Don’t Turn?!

June 5, 2008 · Filed Under Italian politics · 3 Comments

After writing yesterday that Berlusconi had done an about turn on the criminalisation of illegal immigrants, I’ve read in today’s edition of Il Sole 24 Ore, that yesterday’s press reports hailing the Berlusco U-Turn were inaccurate. Mr Berlusconi has now accused the Italian press of ‘jumping the gun’ and miss-quoting what were no more than a few of Silvio’s off the cuff personal comments.

To set the record straight, the Berlusconi government is to go ahead with turning illegal immigrants into criminals. The penalty for this offence will be a custodial sentence which will range from 6 months to four years. Bossi and friends will be happy, and, will continue to support Berlusco. Everyone is happy again, unless, that is, you happen to be an illegal immigrant, or Italy’s justice minister, one Angelino Alfano.

Poor Mr Alfano must be suffering from something of a headache once more. Yesterday’s press reports about a u-turn may have temporarily alleviated Alfano’s aching head, although today’s denial by Berlusco will have brought the pain right back again. Why? Because the justice minister will have to work out where the heck all these illegal aliens will have to be kept.

Italy’s prisons are already overflowing, according to this article in L’Unita. Heaven only knows where they will put all the extra prisoners this particular government initiative will potentially create. Even Berlusconi appears to be a little concerned as to just how to apply this new law.

Expressions such as ‘half-baked’ and ‘popularism’ come flooding to mind in view of the speed with which this odd new law is being rushed through Italy’s parliament.

One almost expects to read of a U-U-U-turn in tomorrows press, with Berlusco accusing the Italian newspapers of having mis-misinterpreted his statements once more.

The Italian press has been accused by Berlusco of having misinterpreted his comments many times, so you would expect that by now, either the Italian press would not rush to, er, press, or Berlusco would learn to watch what he says. Most probably neither of these things is about to happen, and good old Italy will remain as ambiguous as ever.

Tags: Berlusconi, Bossi, Fini, government, immigration, Italian, Italian politicians, Italian politics, Italy, law, Lega Nord, Northern League