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Posts Tagged ‘Anglosphere’

The Economist is one of the most “Pro-Eu/Euro publications I have ever seen, all no doubt justified upon an idea of their “readership constituency” – all business, selfish etc. But today, they published a series of interesting articles with regard to the current crisis in the Euro Zone and explained quite well, the difficulties facing any country that wanted to withdraw from it.

http://www.economist.com/node/17629661/

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There is a substantial audience in both the US and the Middle East for seeing ‘conspiracies’ under every bed and whilst I would agree that society should always have checks and balances to prevent the “structural abuse” of power by those “in power”, in the vast majority of situations, I tend to lean towards believing that most events are a combination of human frailty and total “Cock Ups” caused by a lack of forward thinking rather than some grand plan to deceive.

The current Wikileaks furore seems a classic case in point, it is in reality a traffic accident in slow motion likely wholly caused by a number of weak personalities and incompetents meeting at a given moment in time and space…

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Given the current economic circumstances the defence review was always going to be extremely difficult, the two aircraft carriers that would cost more money to cancel them to continue building is a case in point. The further factor that would have a impact on such review is obviously the on-going war in Afghanistan which by its very nature, is going to distort any strategic concept that would go behind such a review.

The question still lies in really what kind of future war should we be preparing for and it is in this context that we need to look at how successful this defence review has been. Or might it be said that under the given current circumstances a defence review based purely on a “National Strategy” was a task to far however, given that there had not been a defence review for over a decade the coalition government had very little choice in the matter.

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I found this totally funny- the story that Andrew Marr speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival on how technology is changing the way people receive news, “blasted bloggers” as: “…socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother’s basements.”

He added: “Many of us are angry people at times. Some of us are angry and drunk. But the so-called citizen journalism is the… rantings of very drunk people late at night. It is fantastic at times but it is not going to replace journalism.” The following link from the Independent is worth following, not for the news story but rather the readers comments it attracted:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/marr-hits-out-at-angry-rantings-of-drunk-bloggers-2103981.html

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The current ‘big story’ is the leaking of some 90,000 US documents on the Wikileaks website concerning the Afghan War between 2004 and 2009 and revealing many, previously unreported incidents which amount to ‘collateral damage’ or, the killing of innocent civilians by ISAF Forces whilst conducting military operations. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10758578

For all the ‘noises’ made by all concerned, I do not think that this material will make one iota of difference because there is absolutely no ‘amazing revelations’ of say a “My Lai Massacre ”. Though many no doubt will seek, incorrectly to say the killing of people at a wedding party by bombs or missiles is the same which clearly it is not. Poor or bad intelligence does not equate to an Officer losing control of his men and they, then going on a deliberate killing rampage of the people in front of them.

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Andrew Marr writing on the BBC web site made some very good points concerning “new media” and whilst I would agree that “News Content” should be paid for, the real problem is that the current Media Barons haven’t sorted out the answer to the basic question which is, HOW ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10745720

To my mind the reason for this is that no one is sufficiently daring enough to really “think outside of the box”. The focus seems not to have switched off from the past business model of a cover price + advertising revenue for the physical delivery of a paper product. The fixation on pay walls for access assumes that all you do is get the customer to switch from paying for a paper copy to paying for computer/mobile access and that is wrong.

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I suspect that the “Media Honeymoon” over the Coalition Government will soon come to an end as the reporting over these past few days seems to signal. Though not, I might add because serious questions are being raised by Government policies, it is not the way the British Media works.

The problem for media people is that they are reactive to events not proactive. “No news”, or even worse, “Good news” is bad for business, there is just no ‘story’ to chase so in the end these “media children” will… Well we all know what the Devil does in making work for idle hands… so, the media will get restless and like children on a journey, keep asking“Are we there yet ?”

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With the current state of the Public Finances, it is obvious that all Government Departments will come under very heavy pressure to reduce their spending and historically, Defence has always been seen as a ‘soft target’ for politicians, let us hope not, this time around. Just like at the end of the Cold War, people looked for a “Peace Dividend”, there really never is one because “If you want peace then, you must prepare for war” and that is still true to this day.

The real questions must hinge around defining accurately what our “Defence Posture” should be and why. This approach must be stuck to and regardless of the current economic problems because too often in the past, a cash figure seems to have been struck first and then our Armed Forces ‘squeezed’ to fit it which is obviously, the wrong way round.

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Hard to tell following yesterday’s match with the USA, we shall see. Although I love both Football and my Country, I must admit that I am no fan of watching the England Team which is best done from behind the sofa. I suppose if one starts from the position of accepting that they will always in the end, disappoint and fail to win any Tournament, one can tolerate seeing at just what stage they get eliminated.

My dear Pops was a great sports fan during his life and I once asked him whether in his opinion, it was more painful to watch Tim Henman or the England Football Team. He decided on balance, Henman as with 11 players on the pitch, there was always an outside chance that one could produce a magic moment. Yesterday the England goalkeeper made a blunder in the first half that was to gift the USA a draw but the real point was that the other 10 players weren’t good enough to score again in the second half and deliver a victory and it is that which doesn’t bode too well…

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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