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Archive for the ‘Reform and Change’ Category

The starting point for debating the Honours System currently, comes from the decision to remove the Knighthood awarded to Fred Goodwin during his time at the helm of RBS. Of course, RBS as we all now know collapsed into a pile of dog’s turd that had to be rescued with a £42 billion bailout by the taxpayer because of poor management.

The then ‘Sir Fred’ fought tooth and nail to hold on to a ridiculously generous pension arrangement on leaving RBS which he very reluctantly agreed to hand back half of, eventually. It is easy to vilify all Bankers but there is a case to be answered in a ‘narrow sense’ when it seems that employees of these institutions have enriched themselves greatly whilst the people who own them, the shareholders, have seen their investments fall in value. Whatever one may think, that game is surely truly up.

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It is quite amusing to see the current furore in the Media over the SNP and a Referendum on “Scotland leaving the Union”. It is akin to the nonsense expressed by Germany and France over “preserving the Euro at any costs…”except apparently doing what is required immediately to do so. My question in both cases, keeping the Union with Scotland and keeping the Euro alive is WHY ?

If Scottish people are feeling so “inferior” to their English counterparts that the “only solution” in their minds is total Independence from the UK, then, so be it. If Germany is far too successful and therefore in effect impoverishes the “Southern Europeans”, why not split the Euro membership into two, it is only common sense after all. But politicians do get misled far too often for no doubt for well intentioned reasons but in the end mislead themselves…

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Oh Lord, here we go again, yet another numb nuts politician trying to make a name for themselves by “Reforming the House of Lords”, this time its Nick Clegg. One day it might occur to the inhabitants of the House of Commons that just as a Liberal Government tried and failed prior to the outbreak of WWI, so too has every attempt since and for good reasons, the Lords works as it is.

This doesn’t mean that the Lords hasn’t been changed over time, it has and in many ways as is right and proper, like all living things, institutions need to continually evolve to survive and adapt to changing circumstances. The problem with the brainless reformers from the Commons is they want “radical change” so that they can say; “I did this…I bent this to My will !” How idiotic can you get ?

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There is a proposal by a UKIP Peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch to set up a House of Lords Committee to examine the value of the UK belonging to the European Union. It is envisaged that the membership of this committee would be made up of seven people, two “For”, two “Against”, two of no strong view on the matter and, an independent chairman.

The idea would be by diligent examination of the issues, it must be possible to arrive at a firm view, backed with facts that says that it is either “In” or “Against” the UK’s interests to be a member of the European Union. This is a fine ambition I might suggest but there are quite a number of obvious problems with the whole idea…

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Although it was the “Comments” section of the Daily Telegraph that first got me started in writing my own blog, since the advent of comments being handled by Disqus, I don’t bother with the Telegraph that often these days. They do get an amazing number of people commenting on most articles but apart from one or two, they mainly seem to be a few shillings short of a full £ if not outright bonkers.

However, there was an interesting article by Benedict Brogan on Scottish Independence which is worth a read but has also led me to the Land of Loony Tunes… http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100116330/the-union-is-too-far-gone-to-be-saved-by-cameron-or-miliband

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The ‘row’ over the the “Human Rights Act” between Ken Clarke and Theresa May at the Conservative Party Conference is in one sense totally artificial, she a ‘populist’ Tory politician, he a rather complacent chap, on the surface affable but also arrogantly deaf to the genuine concerns of British people over both the ECHR and our membership of the EU.

As to whether the existence of a “pussy cat” was used by a Judge to demonstrate that an illegal immigrant had a “family life” in the UK and therefore could not be deported, isn’t really totally relevant, it seems feasible based upon the public’s perception of how this Act often seems to run counter to common sense in the way it has been applied.

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Over the weekend in The Independent, they obviously had a crisis of confidence in the whole “EU Project” which is hilarious, being British always requires the necessity of being at least mildly sceptical, even of those things of which you might approve. In the case of the EU, it has not been anything of which any person of right mind would give unqualified support to. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-europes-crisis-of-legitimacy-2332710.html

What made it all rather funnier was an article from the one time Minister for Europe, Denis MacShane who fitted the job in between the various ups and downs of his personal life. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/denis-macshane-slash-and-burn-less-brussels-better-europe-2332659.html

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In its own way, it is quite amusing that the ‘junior leader’ of the Coalition Government is attracting far more column inches in the Press than David Cameron himself but, one suspects that following the Local Election and Referendum results, journalists hope they smell ‘blood in the water’. I feel that providing Clegg and his Party keep their wits about them, they will come through fine.

One of the key things he must avoid is the “Do Something” approach and in a interesting article today in the Independent Mary Ann Sieghart focuses in on Clegg’s desire to “Reform the Lords” which she strongly advises him against doing, a view I certainly agree with. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-ann-sieghart/mary-ann-sieghart-if-it-aint-broken-nick-dont-try-to-fix-it-2284679.html

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As ever, the Independent in another half baked Editorial advises people to vote YES to changing the voting system from First Past the Post to the Alternative Vote where people vote for the candidates in order of their preference. This is not proper Proportional Representation for those who believe in that, frankly it is just tinkering with the system for no good reason. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-just-say-yes-to-voting-reform-2278567.html

In reality there is a reason which is simply that it was part of the Coalition Agreement and Nick Clegg needed to see the Referendum delivered in order to demonstrate to his own party members that being part of the Government does bring benefits and the achievement of ‘cherished goals’ not otherwise possible by them just being in Opposition. My own prediction is that the “NO’s” will have it tomorrow and the LibDems will have to accept: “Wrong time and wrong place” as a consequence.

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Well with all the fuss in the run up to the Royal Wedding on Friday, there are bound to be a fair selection of malcontent s and grumpy naysayers on display. There was a Baghot colum in the Economist on just such a note: http://www.economist.com/node/18584926

I don’t know why these people bother, it might be just because they like to moan a lot about anything be it X Factor, Royalty, Coronation Street, Football, Cricket, Tennis, MP’s Expenses… For the terminally grumpy, the list is endless, there will always be something to moan about to keep them “happy” !

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