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Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

For this article, I have used a picture of Ed Miliband apparently the “Bookies Favourite” to win the Labour Leadership election but in a sense, I could equally have used a picture of Simon Hughes, Deputy Leader of the LibDems because both are in a sense, actors on a stage awaiting the script and director to arrive.

They are both “all dressed up, with nowhere to go” and likely, both destined for oblivion as they await the “Coalition Experiment” to succeed or fail when both will inevitably, be struck down with“performance self doubts” and completely fluff their lines. But it never-the-less led me once again to consider the sheer folly of the Blair Brown fratricidal dispute whilst in Office, albeit with a slightly different perspective…

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I just loved this Telegraph story: “Twice as many Tescos open 24/7 as Police Stations”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/7957168/Twice-as-many-Tescos-open-247-as-police-stations.html

After some 13 years in power, just what did these two Muppets achieve – sad detritus that both of them are ! But and never-the-less, after increasing the public sector payroll by some 800,000, it sort of indicates what the likely result is for Health Care and Education – increased costs plus reduced outcomes. Policing is the least of it with efficiency further depleted by endless form filling to produce statistics to justify that Labour was “doing the right thing”.

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There was an interesting piece in the Independent concerning the murder of 10 Charity Workers in Afghanistan: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-aid-workers-and-armed-force-2047112.html

Whilst the British Media will inevitably concentrate on the one Briton killed, the following quote from this article, does provoke some thought:

“But the dependence of aid workers on the military for security, and the reliance of the military on aid organisations for the civilian reconstruction projects that are vital to winning over the local population, make for a volatile mix that risks endangering all concerned.”

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David Laws who was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury under the Coalition and despite a promising start especially in the House of Commons last week, has had to resign due to the Daily Telegraph exposing that he is Gay and had been paying his boyfriend rent on his house though paying a ‘partner’ rent has been banned since 2006, apparently. He is wealthy in his own right having made his money in “The City” by the age of 28.

He has said that the reason he did this was he wanted to keep his private life and sexuality secret which one might say that in these apparently “more liberated days”, seems sad but coming out to family and friends will never be easy and childhood background plus ‘assumed social norms’ could intimidate most people but never the less, it is a sad loss though, the clear and ‘warm’ support he received from David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg over his resignation was a nice touch.

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The oddest thing about Labour going into Opposition is the complete absence of Gordon Brown, this “Political Colossus” as he was often called has disappeared from from the face of British politics. That he would continue on the backbenches as an MP is rather like a Lottery Winner swearing to carry on with his job as a Dustman, is likely a load of bullshit as well as not terribly practical. It reminds me of a description of “Fame”: Stick your hand in a bucket of water, swish it all around and then remove your hand. Once the water has settled again, no one knows that your hand was even there.

It was amusing to see Harriet Harmon as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, standing in in the debate on the Queen’s Speech. Obviously the Labour Party is still in some disarray following its defeat and a prolonged Leadership Contest which will drag on for 4 months, just won’t help too much either. Also set against the background of David Cameron positively glowing and growing in the role of Prime Minister.

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Well it is Sunday and yet another interesting article in the Independent by John Rentoul: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-the-gents-definitely-for-turning-1980437.html

John’s article is worth a read. John Rentoul is ‘known’ as a Tony Blair fan and his insights into David Cameron, originally aired as the “Heir to Blair” are quite interesting because overall, his view is favourable but he does not see him as any kind of Blair clone at all.

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Matthew Parris a former Conservative MP and not known as someone with a particularly soft heart wrote a very upbeat piece on the Times about the new Coalition Government having sat in the Garden of Downing Street to see the fist joint news conference given by David Cameron as PM and Nick Clegg as his Deputy.

“The political earthquake in the rose garden. It almost felt as if a divine hand was at work, bringing together two men to blow away years of staleness.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article7124533.ece

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With Gordon Brown’s departure from Downing Street yesterday and his also standing down as Labour Leader with immediate effect, there will be a Labour leadership contest in the fairly immediate future and this raises some interesting forward projections.

Donald Macintyre wrote an article in the Independent on this but frankly, I don’t think that he has got the right angle on it. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/donald-macintyre/donald-macintyre-labours-leadership-needs-the-stamp-of-a-genuinely-new-era-1971404.html

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Today, Gordon Brown announced that he was ‘standing down’ as Labour Party Leader but insisted that he stayed on as Prime Minister to “oversee” a Lib/Lab pact which wont deliver a Parliamentary majority without being reliant on any and every demand made by Celtic fringe political parties so that, is not good news and it got worse.

Nick Clegg can’t ‘deliver’ the Parliamentary Liberal Democrat Party so, they are running parallel discussions with both the Conservatives and Labour on forming a “Coalition Government” and the Tories have ‘upped’ their offer to maximum, a Referendum on the electoral system. Unfortunately, most LibDem MPs would favour Labour over the Tories so, it looks like we are headed to Hell in a hand cart and another election by September…Oh Joy !

Between now and then, all we can expect is a worsening “financial situation” followed by a Conservative landslide at the second General Election of 2010 with for a few months, David Muppetband as Prime Minister…the cowardly little runt.

Well here we are, the penultimate day of campaigning and I have given up reading or writing into the newspapers on-line, all the coverage is worthless and the opinions, at best tribal at worse totally nonsensical. To be honest and whilst this has been a difficult election to ‘call’, I don’t think that the Media has done a good job, for the most part it has been total crap.

For the LibDems, the lesson they must surely learn is that they have no need of PR to get elected as the Government but, they do need the right people and the right policies. In Clegg, they have someone who appeals to a section of the electorate but apart from him, they are lacking in plausible people.

The thing that I think has damaged them are their policies which are poorly thought out and when examined but the public, put the majority off, as a party they need to change an awful lot and the PR thing shows up as little better than special pleading by them. They definitely need to abandon their “EU at any price” stance, in these EU sceptic islands, that is a big vote loser.