baldysblog.co.uk

Archive for December, 2008

Whilst I would personally like to see us leave tomorrow and cheer, what is more important is the “democratic deficit” of the EU and I would not want that repeated within the UK because I am not afraid of Referendums. I see little point in having a Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, as Ireland demonstrates, the EU will ignore a NO vote and anyway by now, has likely implemented two thirds of the provisions of the original EU Constitution rejected by France and the Netherlands, that is their way.

What we need to do is negotiate a “trade only” deal with the EU and put it to the British people in a “IN or OUT” Referendum, this would not only be the democratic thing to do but would also create a working template for any other Country that might find itself in similar circumstances in the future whilst protecting the EU from disintegration. In reality, Britain’s relationship with the EU and the EU’s relationship with the UK can only improve and prosper with the UK outside of the political EU.

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Should one make New Year Resolutions is probably a valid question because inevitably we always miss our stated goals because either we didn’t desire them sufficiently in the first place or, achieving the goal did not lie within our personal gift anyway.

A good example of the first is “I will give up smoking” because we feel that on both health and economic grounds, we should but in truth haven’t really bought into the idea, we still like smoking. In the case of the second, a career goal based upon getting promoted may also be fated to fail simply because it relies on other people and circumstances beyond our control. So perhaps we should choose our ‘resolutions’ with extreme care…

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The Daily Telegraph seems to have changed both its internet connection service and the way it handles readers comments, neither of which seems any kind of improvement. The consequence of which and perhaps was the underlying intention, is that it is easier to respond to the “Blogs” section than main articles. Today, two of their “bloggers”, Iain Martin writing about David Blunket and James Kirkup on the possible perils facing Nick Clegg Leader of the LibDems, in the New Year inspired some thoughts.

Both provoked me to write in and what follows is mainly based upon my seperate comments to both however and oddly when I stood back and looked at them again, they both have a common theme – Leadership.

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Some years ago Salmon Rushdie wrote the “Satanic Verses” and we were treated with the sight of stupid Muslims in Bradford and other exotic places within the UK, burning copies of a book they had never read on the grounds that it “insulted” their faith. The truth of course was that ignorant and lazy as they were, their actions were based upon what the “Media” said.

How we laughed at them… but we shouldn’t have because they frightened all the British media people.

Look at the state the UK Media is in today, lazy and pathetic beyond belief and no more able to check their sources than I as a single person with my own blog. The Pope gives a speech to the Curia in Rome and some hack decides that the “Pope has attacked Gay People” and both the BBC and the Telegraph led with that totally incorrect headline for over 24 hours and never issued a ‘correction’ or apology afterwards.

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It always seemed to me even when bring up young children, that once the presents were opened, the Christmas Dinner done and despite all the stress and urgency that preceded it, Christmas was sort of “done” at that point.

Having a birthday on the 29^th December meant of course I still had something to look forward to but I must admit, New Year’s Eve is one celebration that I would cheerfully avoid. I think that there cannot be another celebration in the annual calendar whereby the balance is so finely struck between anticipation before it and the inevitable disappointment afterwards…

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To one and all and, by whatever name you call this Feast of the Winter Solstice so cleverly hijacked by the early Christian Church, have some fun, chill out and let all your fears fade away. Although Spring and Easter are the times of positive renewal, the depths of Winter too have a role in planning and preparing for a Brighter Future.

All Best Wishes

Baldy

It is interesting to see how quickly Mr Quick has come to his senses and no doubt aided by some pretty sharp phone calls from various people. To their credit the Conservatives have not ‘milked’ the situation and frankly, best not it might have seemed like “bullying” if they did.

Of course and despite everything else, it has cast a substantial cloud over him as a replacement for the top post recently vacated by Sir Ian Blair and that being the case, it would mean that effectively Mr Quick has reached as far as he can go in terms of his Police Career.

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I have absolutely no idea whether Bob Quick, former Chief Constable of Surrey where he made or allowed a total Horlicks of the Deep Cut Barracks investigation to happen, is any good at his job as Head of Anti-Terror but I suspect that he has made the decision to take the ‘early bath’ and retire before the next General Election.

In some ways this is hardly a surprise, he seemed very close to Sir Ian Blair who was possibly the worse Head of the Met ever seen and was effectively sacked by Boris Johnson when he became Mayor so, he may have felt that his number was ‘up’ if the next Government was Tory anyway. But all that said a curious tale seems about to unfold that raises a number of issues…

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Although I am not a great fan of Michael Portillo as a journalist, I do have a fair amount of respect for someone who following the shock of losing his Parliamentary seat, without going into hiding, came back into the public spotlight with an appropriate degree of humility and set about building a new career in the Media.

In today’s Sunday Times he wrote an interesting article concerning, in his view, the ‘humiliation’ of the British effort in Basra. Personally I think he rather over egged it because neither “total disaster” nor “total success” can describe the outcome, it is all rather more complicated and complex to make those judgements at this time. But that said, he raised some very interesting issues concerning Defence…

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The Arch Bishop of Canterbury has been “at it again” by saying in an interview concerning disestablishing the Church of England: “I can see that it’s by no means the end of the world if the establishment disappears. There is a certain integrity to that.”

Of course from a purely theological perspective he is quite right but this is not just a theological situation and like it or not, the rather odd position of the C of E as in most things to do with the British Constitution has a broad social and historical perspective. Of course the Vandals and Visigoths that sit on the Labour backbenches being incapable of making an effective contribution to the governance of the British Isles have seized upon this topic…

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