Printed and published for UKIP by Steve Halden, 10 Beaufort Green, Swindon, Wiltshire SN3 2AE
LETTERS PUBLISHED IN THE ADVERTISER BY STEVE HALDEN
Steve Halden got a letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 25th February
Peter Smith (SA Feb 24) argues against patriotism and believes that the class struggle against the rich is the main issue in the local elections in May 2021.
Tony Blair led the Labour Party for most of the period 1997 to 2010. This period may well have been a wonderful class struggle against the rich but we ended up with a country short of 4 million houses.
The Labour government of Tony Blair forgot about the basic need to house the working class. The 4 million shortage of houses pushed up prices far too high and now young people cannot afford to rent or buy.
The Conservative Party inherited this housing problem from Labour and have only succeeded in making things worse during the eleven years since 2010.
It takes a patriot to spot the need for more houses and the need to defend womens sports as the main issues in the local elections May 2021.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 19th February
Martin Web (Feb 11) talks about the elections due to take place in May 2021 and what the main issues are going to be.
He believes the main issues are Covid-19, NHS, lockdowns, homelessness, poverty and unemployment.
While I totally agree with him this does not help us to decide who to vote for because all the leaflets will be professionally produced in bright glossy colours with beautiful persuasive words telling is that each party is the right one to choose.
If you you find yourself getting confused by this overload of information may I suggest a short cut to help you decide.
Why not just vote for the candidate that convinces you that he is the most patriotic?
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed in the Advertiser 9th Feb 2021
Went for my Covid-19 vaccination on Thursday 4th February at the Steam Railway Museum and was very impressed with the organisation.
There was something slightly military about the efficiency of the operation. We were greeted at the door and directed to the check in desk. Then directed to line up and wait to be called. It all went as smooth as clockwork.
After the vaccination we were sent to a recovery area for a 15 minute safety check where a supervisor kept an eye on everyone to ensure they were kept safe.
We can all feel proud that Britain now leads the world in the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccinations.
These vaccinations are putting the great back into Great Britain.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 29th January 2021
It is very disturbing that the new USA President Joe Biden can make major changes to about twenty laws using Executive Orders without consulting the Congress or the Senate.
The cancellation of fracking and abandoning the pipeline to Canada will increase the cost of petrol for all drivers.
The changes to womens rights regarding sports and prison conditions will affect the rights of all women very badly.
He also plans to open the southern border to two million additional immigrants despite the fact that there have been riots all through the summer about the shortage of jobs and houses in many America cities.
If Joe Biden can do all this during his first week in office then we should all have a great sense of foreboding about the next four years.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 8th December
Opposition to Lockdown
There is no opposition in parliament to the policy of lockdown even though the lockdown is destroying Britain's restaurants, shops and pubs.
Despite the terrible damage to the British economy all the major political parties in Britain still agree that the lockdown is the best way to control the spread of Covid-19.
Big high street names including Debenhams, Arcadia, Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Burton, Miss Selfridge, and Evans have all announced that they cannot survive the lockdown unless a buyer can be found to take them over.
The Labour Party is the official opposition party, but there has not been a single word of opposition to this crazy lockdown policy even though it is pushing the retail industry in Britain towards bankruptcy.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 2nd November 2020
COST OF COVID
Britain is well into the second wave of Covid-19 and doctors have started to notice that a few people are suffering from some strange side effects which have been called long covid.
At the onset of Covid-19 many healthy young people will only get symptoms like headache and tiredness and in the majority of cases they will be fully recovered in two weeks.
In about ten percent of cases symptoms last over a month and in around two percent of cases symptoms last more than three months.
Long covid sufferers are reporting a huge spectrum of problems, including tiredness, breathlessness, muscle aches, joint pain, confusion, memory loss, a lack of concentration, as well as depression and mental health problems.
Covid-19 is still a new disease so at this stage no one knows how long it will take to recover from long covid but there will certainly be a very substantial cost to the economy of having workers away from work on long term sickness.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 8th October
Sweden an Example
Covid-19 seems to be getting worse in Britain. The figures for positive cases are rising every day and much of Britain has gone back into lockdown.
The government has spent over 100 billion pounds financing the furlough scheme but I cannot see what has actually been achieved.
We seem to be back at square one. The lockdown has destroyed much of British industry and additional businesses are collapsing every day.
Sweden on the other hand chose not to lockdown although they brought in a lot of social restrictions.
Sweden got much better results through voluntary social distancing, working from home, discourage using public transport, ban on gatherings over 50 people, restrict care homes visits, table-only service in bars and restaurants.
Sweden has made these changes permanent and therefore has avoided a second wave of Covid-19 infections.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed in the Advertiser 22nd September
Title - Sweden got it right
After a damaging six month lockdown of the British economy Britain is back to square one again, with Covid19 on the rise and another lockdown on the horizon.
It has become clear to me that this virus cannot be eradicated. New Zealand got the nearest to defeating Covid19. They were free of it for three months, but the country was eventually reinfected by imported frozen food.
So if it cannot be eradicated then we have to learn to live with it. Pensioners will have to be permanently shielded from it. Young people will have to go back to work with masks and social distancing.
Sweden is leading the way with strict social controls while avoiding the need for imposing a lockdown on the economy.
Sweden has managed to get better results than Britain, France, Spain and Italy without resorting to a lockdown. If it cannot be eradicated then we will just have to follow the example of Sweden and find a way to live with it.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed in the Advertiser 8th September 2020
The Stock Market in the USA has risen far too high. Share prices in the USA have become detached from what is actually happening in the economy.
There is only one possible result and that is a correction in which the Stock Market falls. When this correction eventually happens it is bound to affect share prices in Britain.
What is not certain is when this will happen. The USA Federal Reserve have set interest rates too low so investors have no incentive to keep money in their bank accounts, so any spare money that people have is going into shares.
The same situation occurred a hundred years ago in the 1920s. The American Stock Market surged to crazy heights. People made fortunes by borrowing money and putting it into shares, but all those fortunes disappeared with the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed in the Advertiser 31st August 2020
Title - Encouraging signs
In every country across the world Covid19 is on the rise especially in the USA, Brazil and India.
Even in New Zealand where the virus was totally eliminated for three months, they mysteriously became reinfected and cant seem to stamp it out this time.
Although there has been a sharp rise in the number of cases of Covid19, the number of deaths from it seems to be reducing.
The statistics appear to show that Covid19 has become more infectious but less deadly.
If this turns out to be the case it is an encouraging sign that the world economy will be able to live with Covid19 and still survive and recover from it.
Steve Halden
Steve got a letter printed 17th August in the Advertiser.
Title Trust the Teachers
All school exams were cancelled this year so instead teachers had to submit estimates based on previous course work and mock exams.
Computer algorithms were then used by Ofqual to do an overall review of the grades once all the estimated results were received.
These algorithms were used in a way that created a whole lot of trouble for students. Estimates from schools based in rich areas were approved mostly unchanged, while schools from working class areas were routinely marked down.
Some students were marked down by three grades from A down to a D. This was all done without actually looking at the estimates but simply looking at the totals.
Students marked down to grade D will lose their chance of a university education. Personally I prefer to trust the teachers rather than computer programs. It may even be that the computer programs had some bugs in it and this created these inexplicable results.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed 4th August Swindon Advertiser
Title - Must do better in tacking the second wave
The death rate in Britain for Covid 19 has been one of the highest in the world but what is important now is how to stop the second wave from spreading across the country.
Most countries across Europe thought they had Covid 19 under control but almost everywhere the numbers are on the rise again.
The problem with lockdown is that it destroys the economy so it can only be used short term. Britain cannot afford another lockdown.
We must use what we have learned to deal with the virus from now on. In future we have to rely on social distancing, quarantine and wearing masks to keep us safe.
There is no point in digging into the past looking for mistakes. The important thing is the future. We now face the second wave. Britain must do better this time.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed 29th July Swindon Advertiser
CLOSE BORDERS TO COVID
15% of the people of the people who have caught Covid 19 in Britain have died.
This makes it far more dangerous than we have been led to believe.
It means that it is not a virus that we can live with like normal colds and flu because Covid 19 is a hundred times more dangerous than flu.
Britain must do all it can to stamp out this virus. Our borders need to be closed until this virus has been destroyed. Britain's borders need to be sealed indefinitely and this could be for many years.
Letter by Steve Halden printed in the Advertiser 9th July 2020
Black Lives Matter believe that the current shortage of houses and jobs is caused by racial discrimination.
But the housing shortage has a far deeper cause and is more closely linked to age discrimination.
The young generation in Britain face a shortage of 4 million houses, while the older wealthier baby boomer generation mostly own their own homes.
The current recession could cause the worst drop in GDP for 400 years with a corresponding huge loss of jobs in Britain.
Superficially this might appear to be a racial problem but the shortage of houses and jobs equally affects everyone in the younger generation.
This makes the problem much more difficult to solve because age discrimination affects almost everyone under the age of 45.
Steve Halden
Letter by Steve Halden printed in the Advertiser 27th June 2020
Homes for the young
Britain is short of 4 million houses at the present time. This is of particular concern to the young and families just starting out in life.
The young generation are the flower of the nation and the baby boomer generation should be helping them along as best they can, but in fact the opposite is the case.
The majority of baby boomers own their own houses, and a fifth own more than one house. The majority of people under 45 live in very expensive private rented accommodation and are paying rent to landlords.
Speaking as a baby boomer myself I can see we have let down the young generation. In my opinion this shift in wealth to the older generation started when Britain began selling off all the council houses at huge discounts.
Steve Halden
Letter by Steve Halden printed in the Advertiser 28th May 2020
Quarantine for two weeks is being considered for people entering Britain as a way to stop new infections of the corona virus getting into this country.
This seems a strange time to bring in such a restriction, now that the government has spent hundreds of billions of pounds financing the eight week lockdown of the economy.
The quarantine would have been much more effective had it been at the start of the pandemic.
If it had been done at the very start we could have kept the virus out of the country and avoided the vast expense of the eight week economic lockdown in Britain.
Steve Halden
Letter by Steve Halden printed in the Advertiser 18th May 2020
Britain has been in lockdown for eight weeks now and most people are suffering from some sort of stress because of the tight limits on what we are allowed to do.
Therefore it may come as a surprise to some people to find that there have never been any sort of health checks at our airports and borders.
The experts have decided that there is no need to give health checks to people coming into Britain. Britain stands alone in the world in keeping this free movement of people without any health checks.
Having open borders has somewhat defeated the effects of our eight week lockdown. The daily number of new corona virus cases remains high and this could be due to the number of infected people entering Britain each day.
Steve Halden
Letter by Steve Halden printed in the Advertiser 10th April 2020
Lets follow China
On 7th April China had zero deaths from the corona virus for the first time since the pandemic started back in December.
This was a very good result for China because at one time they were the worst country in the world.
Their main tactic is testing and tracking down and isolating all contacts. It is a simple system to follow. By diligently stamping out all trace of corona virus they have now cleared it from their county.
The tactics used in Europe are social distancing to slow the spread of the virus. This tactic is not working and Italy and Spain are the worst examples. Britain needs to develop an exit strategy from lockdown. China is the country to follow.
Steve Halden
Look to the east for ways to end the Corona Virus crisis Printed in the Advertiser 31st March 2020
There are only four countries in the world that have brought Corona Virus under control and they are China, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.
These countries are all from the east and their successful policies are very simple including checking for symptoms at borders and airports, quarantine the sick and tracking down and testing all the contacts.
There are five countries where the policies have been a complete disaster and they are USA, Italy, Spain, Germany and France. All the worst infected areas are either in the EU or in the USA.
Freedom of movement of peoples is a legal right within the USA and the EU. It is this right to move freely from one state to the next that has made it impossible to control the spread of Corona Virus.
Britain should look to the east for guidance. In the east there are four countries that have successfully brought Corona Virus under control. Lets follow the example of countries with a proven record of success.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 20th March 2020
Britain never really tried to fight corona virus. We never closed our borders. We never checked peoples temperature at airports. We never quarantined people from infected areas. We are in a war for survival but even now we have not actually started to fight back.
The government is to spend 300 billion pounds on mitigating the effects of corona virus, but this is not the same as fighting and killing the virus. To fight the virus we needed to stop the virus entering Britain. Trace all contacts and quarantine them for two weeks.
Britain is to close all its schools, but closing schools will not actually kill any germs. These germs are dangerous. We need to isolate them and kill them. We are in a war. This war is more serious than world war two, but we as yet we have not even started to fight the corona virus.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 20th February 2020
The coronavirus can now be called a pandemic because it has spread to every continent of the world.
It is a killer virus with a mortality rate of about two percent.
It spreads as easily as the common cold. It can even be spread by infected people that are showing no symptoms of the disease at all.
Many countries are now taking draconian action to protect their peoples. In China quarantine is not voluntary. Special medical police ruthlessly enforce their quarantine restrictions.
At the time of writing this letter Britain has not implemented any health checks on our borders. Considering the serious threat to life of the coronavirus we should at least be isolating people displaying flu symptoms as they enter Britain.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 20th February 2020
House Prices Too High
House prices in Britain are far too high. The young cannot afford to rent or buy. The problem is that in Britain we are short of four million houses. It is this shortage that is pushing up the prices.
High house prices damage British industry. If rents are high then workers need a wage that will cover those rents. If Britain needs to pay high wages it makes it harder for us to export the things we make.
The high cost of housing in Britain is damaging our chances of future economic growth. Wages have to follow the rising cost of living and as wages go up then our exports become less competitive in world markets.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 20th December Title Young People Betrayed
The young generation in Britain have never had it so bad. House prices today have risen far beyond the reach of most young people.
Britain is short of four million houses. The laws of supply and demand have taken their effect on the housing market. Rents have gone up to follow the rising house prices. While wages have failed to keep pace with rising rents.
The alternative of renting from the council is no longer an option because the Tories have sold of most of the council houses under the Right to Buy Scheme.
The young generation in Britain have been betrayed. House prices are far too high. The young cant afford to rent or buy. They have never had it so bad.
Steve Halden
Mass immigration affects future generations. LETS GET BREXIT DONE Printed 10th Deceember 2019
The reason for fighting the Second World War was that Britain wanted to stay an independent country.
The defeat of Adolf Hitler involved alliances with many countries and of course that included both United States and Russia.
The struggle for survival today involves breaking free of the EU because EU membership has created a desperate shortage of houses in Britain.
The housing shortage not only affects the young people of today but also it affects all future generations.
Supporters of the EU do not realise the misery that we are inflicting upon the all the future generations of young British people that are yet to be born.
Steve Halden Secretary Swindon UKIP Branch
Letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 12th November 2019
UKIP will not be putting up any candidates in Swindon to stand at this general election.
We believe that the two current Swindon MPs are Brexiteers. We want the deal agreed by Boris to be passed in order to get Brexit done.
We believe that we must not split the Brexiteer vote. If the vote is split then Labour will win in Swindon and that could mean that the Brexit we voted for in 2016 is lost for ever.
We may well stand against the Tories in future elections but in 2019 we dont want to split the vote and put Swindon into the hands of a party that supports remain.
Steve Halden Secretary Swindon UKIP
Letter printed in the Advertiser 8th November 2019
Britain has now been in the EU for 46 years. Perhaps this is a good time to consider whether the period since 1973 has been a success or failure for Britain.
At the present time Britain has a shortage of 4 million houses. Britain has the worst trade deficit in the developed world. The vast majority of our industrial base has been destroyed. There is a rising problem of people sleeping on the street. Every year more and more people are forced to go to food banks to survive.
I can remember back to the 1960s. This was a time before we joined the EU. During the 60s Britain did not have any of the above problems. Britain had full employment, a booming economy and houses were cheap to rent and buy. This was a golden age for the working class in Britain.
Steve Halden
Letter Printed in the Advertiser 1st Novermber 2019
This General Election is all about Brexit. This is a chance for the country to vote again on whether we should leave the EU.
The positions of all the parties is now clear. What is not clear is how Britain's first past the post voting system will deal with the four parties asking for our votes.
The most united side will win. If either side splits the vote they have no chance of winning. The side that will win is the one where a voting pact is agreed and the vote is not split.
Steve Halden
Letter Printed in the Advertiser 25th October 2019
Workers' Rights Remain
Remain supporters keep saying that the deal got by Boris Johnson damages workers rights.
The truth is that the deal presented by Boris keeps workers rights exactly the same as they are today for at least the next three years.
If the deal is approved Britain moves smoothly into a transitional of up to three years when our relationship with the EU remains totally unaltered.
We have three years to discuss workers rights as part of the final trade deal.
No aspect of trade with the EU will be altered until the final trade deal has been agreed with the EU and that will not be done till 2022.
Steve Halden
Letter Printed in the Advertiser 17th October 2019
Stop the genocide of the Kurds
Turkey has invaded Syria. A hundred thousand Kurds have already had to leave their homes because of the bombing by the Turkish army and air force.
What makes this even more shocking is that it is a NATO country that is the aggressor in this case.
Most of Syria was once part of the area controlled by ISIS but after a long war ISIS was near to defeat. The Kurds were the ones that were doing most of the fighting against ISIS.
Just when peace in the area seemed possible Turkey has invaded and yet more people are dying in a new Syrian war.
People in Britain who want peace must campaign for the invasion to halt.
Steve Halden.
Letter Printed in the Swindon Advertiser 11th October 2019
GWR Upgrade Special Report
I read the Swindon Advertiser special report (Oct 9) on the upgrade of the Great Western Railway which now seems to have been completed.
It seems that the upgrade will reduce the Swindon to London travelling time by ten minutes.
I researched the cost of the upgrade and it seems to be somewhere around ten billion pounds. That means it has cost a billion pounds for every minute saved in travelling time.
I am a railway lover. I used to be a regular rail traveller fifty years ago but not any more. The cost of rail travel is now way out of my reach.
The privatisation of the railway has been a disaster for people like me that love the railways but can no longer afford to use it.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Swindon Advertiser 7th October 2019
The Labour Party Conference voted this year to extend the free movement of people to all countries of the world. This would give Britain no border controls at all.
It also voted to give the vote to all people resident in Britain. This new policy of extending the vote to everyone in Britain even if they are only hear on a temporary basis is most unusual.
No other country in the world has opened its borders to this degree and given the vote to temporary visitors in this way.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Advertiser 30th September 2019
Thomas Cook Travel Agents has just gone bust and joins the long list of famous British companies that have disappeared.
Much of Britains manufacturing has shut down. Many well known names have gone for ever including Woolworths, BHS, MG Rover Cars, shipbuilding and many steel production plants.
Globalisation describes industrial policy of the three major parties in Britain. This policy is that it is cheaper to import foreign goods than to support British industry.
The bail out of the banks was an exception to this rule. Hundreds of billions were spent supporting the banks.
Companies like Thomas Cook are sacrificed on the altar of free market economics. Sometimes just a small amount of money is needed to help a business over a difficult period, but that is not the British way. The British way is to close businesses down as soon as they get into financial difficulties.
Steve Halden
Letter was printed in the Swindon Advertiser 14th Sept
POLITICAL QUAGMIRE
Theresa May brought a very soft Brexit deal back from the EU and asked the Labour Party to support it.
The Labour Party voted down Theresa May's deal three times, and then voted to take no deal off the table.
It then voted to block Boris Johnson from calling a General Election.
That covers all the possible options available to Britain to solve the Brexit problem.
Britain is now stuck in a deep political quagmire.
Steve Halden
Letter published in the Advertiser 7th September 2019
Parliament seems to have ground to a halt. This situation cannot continue. We must have a General Election.
None of the major parties have enough MPs to command a majority in the House of Commons, therefore parliament cannot pass any new laws.
Whatever your political viewpoint whether it be left wing or right wing, we can all agree on this one issue. We must have a General Election.
Steve Halden
Letter published in the Advertiser 2nd July 2019
The letter from Zoe McCormick (July 1) considers many of the problems in Britain but misses out the biggest issue of the day and that is the housing shortage.
It is fashionable for politicians to skate over the housing crisis and pretend that it does not exist. This is because it mostly affects the young generation who tend not to vote.
Forty-six years of EU membership have created a shortage of four million houses.
Having a roof over your head is a basic human right but millennials are finding that the high costs of buying and renting are eating up their wages.
Right wingers and left wingers need to put politics aside for a while and sort out the housing problem for the sake of the young generation.
Steve Halden
Dont choose another Remainer as Prime Minister published 24th June 2019
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are the last two candidates left in the race to become Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party.
The Conservatives have been given the choice of one who campaigned for Remain and one that campaigned for leave.
We have already had Theresa May who was a Remainer and a total disaster as Prime Minister.
If the Conservatives choose another remainer it will be the end of the Tories and a massive boost for Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed about the BREXIT PARTY in the Swindon Advertiser 31st May
Title "SINGLE ISSUE WON IT FOR THE BREXIT PARTY"
In reply to Mark Webb (May 28) when I said that the Brexiteers were moderates I was really describing the people who voted for the Nigel Farage new Brexit Party.
The Brexit Party achieved a landslide victory with 32 percent of the national vote in the EU elections.
The total allocation of seats for Britain in this election was 73 and of those the Brexit Party gained 29 MEPs.
Mark Webb must stop thinking about British politics in terms of left wing and right wing. The division of the country at the present time is between Brexiteers and Remainers.
The Brexit Party did not even produce an election manifesto. They stood on the single issue of leaving the EU without a deal and in future trading on WTO terms.
This was all the voters wanted to know. That single issue was sufficient to achieve a landslide victory for the Brexit Party.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in Swindon Advertiser 25rd May 2017
Mark Webb ( May 24) is right to be disturbed at the rising level of poverty in Britain.
The main cause of poverty is the very high cost of living caused by the shortage of houses.
Britain is short of 4 million houses. It was Britain's 46 year membership of the EU that caused the housing shortage.
This is why Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016. This is why the working class are flocking to support Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party.
The British voters know what the problem is, and they know what caused the problem.
The solution is for our MPs to take us out of the EU without a deal and in future trade under WTO rules with Europe and the rest of the world.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in Swindon Advertiser EU Election day 23rd May 2017
TITLE "We're moderates"
Peter Smith (May 20) still thinks politics in Britain is about a division between left wing and right wing.
While the left verses right division was true 50 years ago, times have changed and the division today is between Brexiteers and Remainers.
Brexiteers are moderate nationalists. We want Britain to make its own laws and to have decent housing for all especially the young generation.
Britain has a shortage of 4 million houses. Left wingers are housing crisis deniers. They believe that going on strike is the universal panacea for all problems. But calling businesses out on strike never build a single house for the working class.
People concerned about the rising problem of homelessness in Britain are not Fascists. Caring about your fellow man is not right wing at all.
Brexiteers are the moderates. We want full employment and a decent home for all.
Brexiteers are not anti-semitic in any shape or form. Brexiteers have never made one single criticism of the Jews or the state of Israel.
We just want to make our own laws and have decent homes for all the working class people of Britain.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Advertiser 14th May 2019
Martin Webb (May 13) is very keen to use the word Fascist about Brexiteers who want Britain to regain its independence from the EU.
Historically the word Fascist referred people who persecuted Jews but the Brexiteers have never made any criticism of Jews or the state of Israel.
The main problems that Brexiteers are fighting is the domination of Britain by the EU and the way that the housing shortage affects young people.
The young generation have been betrayed by high house prices and rents. All working class people are steadily being made poorer by the housing crisis which is pushing up the cost of living.
The word Fascist should not be used to describe Brexiteers and people campaigning for better housing for the poor working class people of Britain.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Advertiser on 11th May 2019
In reply to Peter Smith 8th May I am old enough to remember life in the 1960s. It was a golden age for the working class.
Houses were cheap and wages were high. In London houses were three time the average wage. Those very same houses are now forty times the average wage.
There is a shortage of 4 million houses in Britain. High house prices affect the working class because high rents push up the cost of living.
Many working class people are being pushed into poverty by high rents. Those who manage to buy are being pushed into poverty as they struggle with mortgage repayments.
We joined the Common Market in 1973. 46 years later this has led to a housing crisis in Britain. The shortage of houses has pushed up the cost of living and is creating misery for ordinary working class people in Britain today.
Steve Halden
Advertiser 11th April 2019 entitled "Angry and Ignored"
The agreed date for Britain to leave the EU was 29th March 2019.
But that date has come and gone and we are still in the EU.
Not only are we still in the EU but we dont seem to be getting any nearer to leaving.
The people who voted to leave the EU now feel that they have been betrayed.
17.4 million people who voted to leave are now feeling very angry that their referendum vote has been ignored.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in Advertiser 19th March regarding Brexit
Patrick O'Shea seems to have forgotten that the people had a vote on the EU in 2016 and we voted leave.
In the 2017 General Election both major parties promised to honour the result of that public vote.
In 2019 this Remain dominated parliament has just voted to reject the referendum result.
Britain will not now be leaving the EU at the end of March as promised.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in Advertiser 5th March re Honda and homes
The letter form Martin Wicks (Mar 1) explains in the clearest possible language the urgent need for new council houses in Swindon.
The Right to Buy has been a great investment for people who bought council houses but it has created a crisis for the next generation looking for homes for their families.
The two main problems facing Swindon today are the Honda closure and the housing crisis.
We have 650 highly paid MPs sitting in our parliament but when it comes to the problems of Honda and housing they wash their hands of it and say its all down to market forces.
Well I disagree. Lets see a bit more government involvement in sorting out the Honda problem and building more affordable homes for the working class, and less reliance on market forces to solve these major problems.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in Advertiser 23rd February Bus Boulevard
The pedestrian underpass leading to the bus station is one of the busiest parts of the Swindon town centre.
It seems there are plans to permanently close this underpass and replace it with a pedestrian crossing.
Your article on February 21 said this will be done as part of plans to create a bus boulevard at the end of Fleming Way.
The bus boulevard would mean a halt to cars and lorries using that part of Fleming way.
I can only assume that the councillors in Swindon have all gone mad an taken leave of their senses.
Everything about this plan is total madness.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in Advertiser 22nd February about Honda
It is shocking news that Honda are pulling out of Swindon. It is reported that some other Japanese car makers will also soon be leaving Britain.
One of the reasons for this is that the EU have agreed a new trade deal with Japan. This gives them tariff free access to the EU market and that is why they are moving production back to Japan.
Tony Blair refused to give funding to MG Rover in 2005. When it was closed down MG Rover was Britain's last remaining British owned car maker.
Britain needs a home grown car maker that can be relied upon to stay in Britain.
Perhaps the nationalisation of the Honda plant in Swindon could be the answer so that we could once again make our own cars here in Britain.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Advertiser 21st February about the Swindon Yellow Vests
Howard March (Feb 14) is living under the false impression that the "yellow vest" protesters in Swindon were all UKIP supporters.
The truth is that the "yellow vests" are a cross party organisation and are totally separate and not part of UKIP at all.
Membership of the EU has created a low wage economy in Britain and at the same time EU membership has pushed up the cost of house prices and rents.
Many people are concerned about this deteriorating situation including many people on the left wing of British politics.
The "yellow vest" protesters started their campaign in France and there they have have attracted people from both from the left wing and right wing in equal numbers.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Advertiser 7th Feb replying to Mr Gordon Simm
The letter by Gordon Sim (Feb 7) says he wants a public debate about why people voted to leave the European Union in 2016.
All he needs to do is read the shocking survey about the homeless problem published in the Advertiser on the same day as his letter.
Homelessness is rising rapidly in Swindon and also all over the country. The homeless problem all started when we joined the EU in 1973.
Before 1973 there was no homeless problem. This problem was gradually created during the 46 years of Britain's membership of the EU.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Advertiser 4th Feb about the golden age of the 1960s
May I remind Patrick O'Shea (Jan 31) that Britain joined the Common Market in 1973 and the twenty years prior to that were a wonderful golden age of prosperity for the British working class.
Full employment, cheap houses, high labourers wages, booming industrial production and trade surpluses were the norm in the 1960s.
In 1974 only one year after joining the Common Market, Britain was on a three day week and by 1976 James Callaghan and the Labour Government had to borrow from the International Monetary Fund as Britain was broke.
The mood of the 1960s was perfectly encapsulated by the famous words by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan " You have never had it so good".
Steve Halden
Letter re Jeremy Corbyn refusing to discuss Brexit January 22nd 2019
The British parliament has defeated Theresa May's Brexit deal with an enormous 230 majority.
Parliament now needs to search for a deal that can achieve cross party support and Theresa May has asked for talks with the other political parties to try to find an agreement.
Jeremy Corbyn has refused to take part in these talks and he has told all Labour Party MPs that they should also refuse to talk to Theresa May.
Time is now rapidly running out because the official Article 50 leaving date is at the end of March 2019.
No further progress can be made towards getting a cross party agreed deal as long as Jeremy Corbyn refuses to allow the Labour Party to be involved in these cross party Brexit talks.
Steve Halden
Letter The problem of gambling addiction January 16th 2019
The article in the Advertiser on gambling addiction (Jan 10) estimates that 1,900 people in Swindon have a gambling problem.
The cost of dealing with gambling addicts is put at £3m. It is an illness and addicts can end up in hospital and in some cases it can lead to suicide.
The wives and children of compulsive gamblers also suffer because that money should be going on food, clothes and things for the house.
People who watch television are bombarded with adverts for gambling especially around live football matches on TV.
The Gambling Act 2005 liberalised the gambling laws under the Labour government of Tony Blair but it is hard to see how these changes have in any way helped ordinary working class people.
The European Union Commission supports EU countries efforts to modernise their national online gambling legal frameworks but this liberal approach makes life very difficult for the long-term hardened gambling addict.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden's letter about EU immigration boats published Today 2nd January 2018
82 migrants were recently detained in one week while crossing the English Channel in small boats.
This sudden surge in numbers has taken take government very much by surprise.
Theresa May knows that these boat people cannot be sent back to France according to EU law.
EU law states very clearly that whatever the circumstances people caught crossing the English Channel cannot be returned to France.
Steve Halden
Letter printed 13 December about the Marrakesh Compact in the Advertiser.
A HUGE DIFFERENCE
Theresa May signed up to the United Nations Marrakesh Compact on Sunday 9th Dec 2018.
The Marrakesh Compact sets out new rules to facilitate easier immigration from poor countries to rich countries like Britain.
The agreement recommends that countries that have signed up to the new rules should make the campaigning for controlled immigration illegal.
These new rules will make a huge difference to what the political parties in Britain are allowed to say at election times.
Steve Halden
The EU is blocking our sewers (Printed 8th Dec 2018)
The sewers of Britain are being blocked by wet wipes that are very long lasting and will never degrade naturally.
The packets very clearly say please do not flush down the toilet but that advice is being ignored.
The solution is easy. All wet wipes should be banned because of the huge cost of unblocking sewers in Britain.
But life is not that easy because only the EU has the power to ban a product in Europe.
This is yet another example of how so much power has been handed over to the EU.
Almost all the laws that effect life in Britain are now made by the EU.
Steve Halden
The Great Train Robbery (Printed 30th Nov 2018)
The great train robbery hits commuters as rail fares go up 3 percent.
Passengers are getting hammered again this year as the service gets steadily worse with ever more delays and cancellations.
The 37 percent rise in fares in the last ten year highlights the fact that privatisation has been a disaster for those people who have to use the trains to get to work.
Steve Halden
An article in the Advertiser (Nov 24) said that Swindon was in the top ten worst areas for house price affordability.
Swindon people aged 29 on good incomes are taking six years to save up for a 15 percent deposit.
While people on low incomes had no chance at all of ever saving up for a deposit. The alternative of getting council house was getting harder and harder.
Many council houses have been sold off. Swindon now has fewer council houses than it had in 2011.
The working class are being pushed into the expensive private rented sector as the only alternative now that buying a house is beyond their reach.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Advertiser 24th November 2018 by Steve Halden The letter by Alan Spencer (20 Nov) lists many reasons why a Brexiteer should have negotiated our leaving the EU and not a remainer.
The most obvious problem is that the end result will be Britain not having left the EU.
Britain will become a vassal state in a permanent situation of being a rule taker. This is why all the genuine Brexiteers in the cabinet have resigned.
They have sacrificed their political careers in order to warn us that the deal negotiated by Theresa May will result in Britain not fully leaving the EU.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Advertiser 17th November 2018 by Steve Halden
The letter (Nov 9) from Martin Webb talks about building a culture of peace, love and compassion across the UK.
But is he on the same planet as the rest of us? We have just had ten years of the most terrible austerity with no end in sight. The national debt is nearly two trillion pounds and still rising.
There is a frightening amount of knife crime with record numbers of murders in London.
House prices and rents have risen to a level beyond the reach of the ordinary working class.
These problems are especially hard for the millennials who are just starting out in life. The British economy is a horror story at the moment.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Advertiser 1st November 2018 by Steve Halden
The Budget by Philip Hammond Chancellor of the Exchequerhas failed to tackle the major problems facing the British economy and that is the trade deficit.
Britain has the worst trade deficit in the developed world even after including invisible exports of services such as banking and insurance.
Manufacturing industry is the main generator of wealth in Britain and the Budget totally ignores that sector of the economy. There is nothing in the budget to encourage exports in order to tackle the trade deficit.
Britain runs a trade deficit with the EU of a billion pounds a week. This is the most urgent problem facing Britain today.
In the long term a deficit of this size is unsustainable because it adds to the National Debt which is already approaching two trillion pounds.
Steve Halden
Letter printed in the Advertiser 18th October 2108 by Steve Halden
Conservative MP Anna Soubry is now saying that leaving the EU is impossible.
She is saying that MPs should apologise for offering a referendum on an issue that was impossible to deliver.
She us wrong. Leaving the EU would be very simple if only our MPs would vote for what the people were asked in the EU referendum.
The referendum result was a vote to leave the EU. We never asked the government to try to negotiate a half in half out compromise.
Steve Halden
Labour's six tests for the Brexit deal. Advertiser 29 Sept Theresa May is negotiating a Brexit deal and Labour have said they will vote against it unless the deal passes the six tests that Labour have set out to judge the deal.
The first test is that the Brexit deal must include exactly the same benefits as we have now.
So using that logic if the deal is better than before Labour would vote against it on the grounds that it is not exactly the same as before.
The only way to get a deal that is exactly the same is to remain in the EU. In other words Labour will vote against any Brexit deal that Theresa May negotiates if it does not include remaining in the EU.
Steve Halden
Catching a Serial Killer. Advertiser 28th September The finest possible achievement of any policeman is to catch a serial killer.
Sometimes such an investigation can involve literally hundreds of policemen. But Superintendent Steve Fulcher did it more or less on his own in less than a week.
In a story that could outdo the wildest TV fiction thriller the true life ITV documentary told how the serial killer was caught.
Not only was the serial killer Christopher Halliwell caught for the murder of Sian O'Callaghan, but he was also eventually convicted for the murder of Becky Godden.
This has got to be one of the most thrilling and spectacular police murder investigations ever told.
It was just very sad that Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher lost his job due to technical problems with the Police and Crimes Evidence Act.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden letter printed in Advertiser 22 September 2018
A British ex-soldier has been given a seven year prison sentence by Turkey for fighting ISIS.
ISIS were one of the most cruel regimes in the world. They were eventually defeated by a coalition of western forces.
It seems that Turkey did not approve. They have given Joe Robinson a seven year prison sentence for helping the Kurds to defeat ISIS.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden letter printed in Advertiser 18th September 2018 British laws illegal say the ECHR
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has once again overruled the British parliament.
The ECHR has made the judgement that the British bulk surveillance powers set up in 2016 are illegal.
Keeping the public safe should always be the number one priority of any British government. Britain is in a constant struggle against terrorist attacks and those bulk interception powers are essential to that fight.
But the ECHR believes that human rights are more important than keeping the country safe.
We voted to leave the EU on 23rd June 2016. That was over two years ago but nothing has changed.
The ECHR is still preventing the British government from doing its job properly.
Steve Halden
Letter by Steve Halden on Plastic Waste published Advertiser 10th September 2018
Everyone agrees that we need to recycle more plastic waste to save the planet and protect the oceans from plastic pollution.
Britain has found that the cheapest way to recycle is to export our plastic waste to third world countries.
It has now been discovered that most of what we exported ended up in land fill abroad.
Britain has tried to avoid building proper recycling plants in Britain as it requires the government getting involved with industrial production which goes against basic Conservative philosophy.
It is British industry that creates wealth in this country. The Conservatives need a total change of philosophy.
Britain needs to be much more supportive of its home grown manufacturing industry.
Steve Halden
Letter from Steve Halden in the Advertiser 3rd Septermber
It seems that Swindon Council are very proud that they sold 73 council houses last year.
The rise in sales was achieved by offering even larger discounts to residents. As Swindon is only allowed to keep a third of the income from these council house sales it is difficult to see how these houses can ever be replaced.
There is no doubt that buying your own council house is a bargain for residents but it creates a problem for future generations.
The young generation are being pushed into the very expensive private rented sector.
House prices are far to high the young cant afford to rent or buy.
Steve Halden
Letter from Steve Halden in the Advertiser 23rd August
In reply to John Stooke (Aug 17) Britain runs a trade deficit with the EU of a billion pounds a week after accounting for services.
Britain runs the worst trade deficit in the developed world because the EU has been bad for trade.
Before we joined the EU we had full employment and cheap houses. Now unemployment is up to 4% and the average house price is nine times the average wage.
EU membership has created a disastrous National Debt in Britain of nearly two trillion pounds.
Britain is in permanent austerity. Because of our EU membership Britain can nolonger afford to properly fund council house building, libraries, public toilets, police, road maintenance, schools and the NHS.
Steve Halden
Letter from Steve Halden in the Advertiser Ist Aug.
GDPR is part of the latest flood of EU regulations to hit the business community. Business and political parties have been knocked sideways by this glut of new EU red tape.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union (EU).
Britain voted to leave the EU on 23rd June 2016.
For some reason that I dont fully understand Britain is still adopting all the red tape regulations that come gushing out of the EU parliament in Brussels.
Steve Halden
Letter published in the Advertiser 24th July 2018
In reply to Kevin Small 20th July, it is our MPs refusal to implement the EU referendum result that is the problem.
Both Major parties promised to take Britain out of the EU in their 2017 General Election Manifestos.
But once the election was over both major parties decided that they wanted to stay in a Customs Union.
The ruling elite have decided that the working class made a mistake in wanting to take back control of our borders.
They have decided that the free movement of people is the option that the working class should have chosen.
Steve Halden
The EU is trying to destroy YouTube
(Letter published in the Advertiser 13th July 2018)
The European Union is trying to bring in tougher new copywrite laws that could put YouTube out of business.
Copywrite infringements mean that the singers are not getting sufficient money under the existing system say the EU.
The young generation have grown up with YouTube and they would find it a shock if it was suddenly blocked by the EU.
Britain voted to leave the EU on 23rd June 2016 but at the moment we are still following all the laws put out by the EU, so if it was blocked Britain would have to follow that ruling.
Steve Halden
UKIP is the party for the young generation
Martin Wicks (June 15) was right to highlight that the housing affordability crisis is still getting worse in Swindon.
In the private sector the monthly rent for a three bedroom family home is now £850. This has gone up 17% in the last four years.
Recent changes to Housing Benefit regulations have reduced the help that is available to the young generation.
The outlook for the future is quite bleak. High house prices have put buying properties out of reach.
This means that more and more people will find themselves in the private rented sector because so many council houses have to sold off under the Right to Buy legislation.
Steve Halden
Promoted by and on behalf of Steve Halden 10 Beaufort Green, Park North, Swindon SN3 2AE
The housing crisis in Swindon
Martin Wicks made some very good comments in the Swindon Advertiser on 23rd April about how the young generation are struggling to cope with high house prices and rents in Swindon.
He blames the Right To Buy scheme as one of the main reasons for creating the shortage of council houses.
It seems that 8,000 council houses have been sold in Swindon and this has made the housing waiting list very much longer for young people.
There has been a corresponding rise in the number of people using the private rented sector, where prices are high and the tenancies are not secure and usually only six months to a year.
My opinion is that the young generation are the flower of the nation. All young people deserve a decent home to raise their family.
It is in eveyones interest to help the young generation to make a good start in life.
The best possible start we can give them is that they should have a decent place to live.
Steve Halden Beaufort Green, Swindon Published in the Swindon Advertiser 27th April 2018
Single Market restrictions on Business
In reply to John Dennis (14 May) I am afraid his idea of encouraging businesses to move up north into areas where houses are cheap would be illegal under EU Law.
Within the EU Single Market these things must be left to market forces and any interference is classed as state aid and strictly against the rules.
If we want to provide affordable homes for the young generation then we have no option but for local councils to start building council houses.
300,000 council houses will need to be built every year because at the present time there are two million people waiting for a council house and the lists are growing all the time.
If we started building at this speed it would still take about seven years to clear the backlog of people currently on council house the waiting list.
Steve Halden Beaufort Green Swindon Published in the Swindon Advertiser 19th May 2017
