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Archive for the ‘Reform and Change’ Category

Lordy, Lordy, here comes the first TV Debate and the question, is it worth watching ? My personal opinion is rather like “Match of the Day”, watching the ‘highlights and all the goals’ will be far better than the actual thing itself unless you are a total fanatic or a “Media Person”.

Of course the ‘Match Reports’ will vary wildly and depending where you read them and what their particular ‘beef or bias’ lies. If the Main Editorial in the Independent today is anything to go by, in tomorrows Indy, “Clegg Won it, Hands Down…” For a flavour of just how crap this Editorial Staff can be, read this nonsense: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-dividing-lines-are-clear-ndash-and-theres-no-reason-to-fear-the-prospect-of-a-hung-parliament-1945055.htm

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Oh dear, day nine and gloom has settled over all the Media with the latest polls indicating a shrinking Tory lead and a poll showing that 32 per cent of the public hope for a hung Parliament, against 28 per cent who want a Tory majority and 22 per cent a Labour one. Lib Dem voters prefer a deal with Labour in a hung Parliament. Lord what a weak and gutless Country we have become.

Labour launched their Manifesto on Monday, the Conservatives yesterday and the LibDems today. The simple fact of the matter is that Party Manifestos from whatever party, are useless in terms of detailed policies and at best “mood music”.

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An interesting article in the Independent by Dominic Lawson today that is worth a read because like a previous article by John Rentoul, it is pointing towards the public being fundamentally dishonest with themselves over “politicians telling the truth” – the public just don’t want to hear it, the truth.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-the-public-want-honesty-but-not-when-it-comes-to-their-taxes-1942927.html

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I have quoted it before but Napoleon’s question to Marshall Ney on the latter extolling a young Cavalry Officer for promotion, still rings true to this day: “Yes Ney, but is he lucky ?”

In this context and despite the recent narrowing of the opinion polls that seem to indicate that Labour is still in with a chance, I never believed them for one minute. Labour just doesn’t have a prayer and the reason is Gordon Brown, surely the unluckiest of all Prime Ministers and for us the luckiest of citizens when he and his Government are no more.

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At the weekend, an Editorial in the Times, slightly tongue in cheek one hopes, called for fixed four year Parliamentary terms rather as they have 4 year fixed terms in the United States: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article7060988.ece

At the same time, it is widely rumoured that the awful and barely articulate (have ever seen him speak in the Commons ?), Jack Straw will rush forward proposals for a 300 seat fully elected Second Chamber to replace the House of Lords. Apparently this is really intended as a political trap for David Cameron – if so we can see the grubby paws of Gordon Brown all over that one.

The two ‘news items’ put together indicate the degree of trouble this Country is in and just how intellectually challenged the people in both politics and the media are these days.

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As a child, I could always draw reasonably well, no matchstick men for me, people had to look like people, horses like horses and so on. I can remember my Irish Grandmother sitting beside me and saying something like; “With a talent like that, when you grow up you could be a Draughtsman and earn £20 a week”. In that memory is encapsulated the concept of a “natural order” in society, deference but then she was born during Queen Victoria’s reign.

There was an interesting “guest” article in the Times by Charlie Mayfield who is the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership which operates not as a normal business but as a “Partnership” or if you prefer, a co-operative, with variations, it is a concept that I want to explore further.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7047304.ece

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For all the fuss, I suspect that the outcome of the General Election will still be a Cameron Government, the situation is rather more like the vote in Northern Ireland yesterday over Policing and Justice. For all the fuss made by the Unionists, interventions by George Bush and so forth, the vote got a substantial majority as it had to.

Sure there are doubts, quite serious ones: For Sinn Fein, they needed Policing and Justice to be “local” to undermine the “British Rule” slur put out by dissident Republicans to justify illegal behaviour. The Unionists understood that but doubted whether it would undermine the ‘die-hard’ elements… but really there was little choice in the matter, for good or ill, it was an inevitable step forward albeit it, into the darkness.

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Over recent months and likely to continue over the next year or so there is lots of Media coverage concerning the “Recovery” and or the threat of a “Double Dip” Recession. Now whilst I am no economist, it does rather strike me that people are looking down the wrong end of the telescope on this one, my gut feeling is that the whole “system” and our approach to it needs to change radically and that is what this and a following essay is about but first a couple of samples from the Press:

Real Unemployment: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7257667/Eight-million-people-economically-inactive.html

The Double Dip: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-recovery-was-never-going-to-be-easy-1908331.html

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To my mind, the most disturbing feature of the MPs “Expenses Scandal” has been the obsequious behaviour of the Media in being unprepared to tackle the real issues involved head on, like politicians themselves, they appear too scared of the “public outrage”.

This public outrage I suspect, has as much to do with with the pomposity of the Labour Government and in particular one Gordon Brown who it is now clear, made a total horlicks of the UK economy whilst Chancellor whilst boasting that he had abolished Boom and Bust. In addition, this Parliament has effectively been dead since sometime during 2008, there should have been a 2009 election and political clear out of Westminster then.

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We all like a clearly defined villain, someone we can all hate without fear of contradiction that we as individuals have made a mistake. There have been two stories in the past year running in the UK that have both these elements: MP’s Expenses and Banker’s Bonuses.

In both cases I believe that the “Perceived Wisdom”is totally wrong, worse a “cover up” and President Obama’s threats to limit American Banks in both size and scope, probably foolish and his message is more ‘politically populist’ than the sound of common sense. The reality behind both of these stories is something called complacency…

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