Editor’s Note: In this exclusive interview, Dr. Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute discusses his new book The Alternative Manifesto as well as economics and politics in the UK and the U.S.

ALL RIGHT MAGAZINE: Your new book is The Alternative Manifesto: A 12-Step Programme to Remake Britain.  An American who reads it would be quick to notice the similarities between the situation there and in the United States, both economically and politically, but the situation there does seem worse.  Do you agree?

DR. EAMONN BUTLER: In the UK, Parliament is sovereign. There are no formal, constitutional checks and balances as there are in the US. It’s like cricket – the system depends on people just ‘playing the game’ with its unwritten rules. Unfortunately, the 24-hour media demand and other changes have made our system more ‘presidential’, where most attention is focused on the prime minister, rather than on the government as a team. Charismatic leaders, like Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, have taken more and more control to the centre, and because our executive (around 120 ministers) also sits in the House of Commons, Parliament rarely votes against executive policy. So there has been nothing to stop this centralization. So our state-funded services – healthcare, education, welfare, police, the justice system and much more – have ended up being run from the centre, in top-down, Stalinist fashion. Not surprisingly the public services just consume more and more money without delivering results, while police and justice officials have become agents of the state rather than guardians of the people. Equally, though, with our system we can reverse things quickly too, as Margaret Thatcher reversed our social and economic decline in the 1980s. So an enlightened government can change all this. But it means giving up power and devolving it back to the people – which no politician is really very good at.

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By Rev. MICHAEL BRESCIANI

Since my articles entitled Prophecy 2008 and Prophecy 2009 were the most read articles of each respective year I have undertaken this piece with much care and forethought. The prophetic message has changed little in the last two years, but the country has changed significantly; unfortunately the changes have not all been good.

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By Rev.  MICHAEL BRESCIANI

The EU has confirmed Herman Van Rompuy as the first permanent President of the emerging United States of Europe. He has clearly stated that the first order of business for the EU will be to solidify the economy and answer the social changes the 47 member states are facing.

No doubt the plight of homosexuals is on the top of the list of social problems perceived in the EU because this week a meeting is taking place in Europe to address the fact that not everyone is getting onboard with the gay agenda. Homophobia, transphobia and other forms of sexual orientation discrimination is said to still exist in the EU on a larger scale than the Union wants to see.

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By Rev. MICHAEL BRESCIANI

This week in America three celebrities passed away without warning. Reviews on the life of pop culture icon Michael Jackson was at the top of most news programs along with some questions about the manner of his death. Does our penchant for this kind of story indicate anything about our national state of mind?

While we reel from the loss of our celebrities and pop icons a Washington based organization known as the TVC (Traditional Values Coalition) is fighting almost a lone battle against the passage of a hate crimes bill that could effectively protect a pedophile but punish a preacher. Finding news about that organizations fight would be very hard to do in the mainstream media. The interest in one story over the other is proof positive that the entire direction and purpose of the nation has changed.

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