baldysblog.co.uk

Posts Tagged ‘British Media’

There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, the physicist and mathematician Professor Stephen Hawking has said: “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.”

One suspects that with a new book to push, being controversial is a way of attracting attention so: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist.” All quite amusing and regardless of which side of the “God Debate” you are on.

Read the rest of this entry »

We are still in the “Silly Season” as the Media eagerly anticipates the Party Conference Season so some stories still border on the distinctly odd and none more so than that concerning Andy Coulson a former Editor of the News of the World and now David Cameron’s chief spin doctor.

To me, the ‘story’ seems rather less interesting than the motives behind reviving it at this time because the question “In who’s interest” is always fascinating when there seems no particularly strong public interest in the topic and it is unrelated to any current story going the rounds so Why ?

Read the rest of this entry »

There was an Editorial in the Independent today, the aim of which was to “warn” the Conservatives in particular against cuts that cost Government jobs in economically depressed areas. This is all rather odd and a bit mixed up considering the “Indy” is no supporter of the Tories at any time !

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-two-nations-once-more-2066181.html

However this is rather an odd article in another way because it fails to tackle the problems head on and instead ‘paddles’ in the shallows rather than applying any serious thinking to examining the core issues that lie behind this.

Read the rest of this entry »

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…

Read the rest of this entry »

Quite often, some might say all too often, the reader’s responses to articles published in the Media are often far more interesting than the published original and one response because no doubt of my personal experiences, caught my attention concerning “Carers”.

We all know that cuts in Government expenditure are coming and therefore in the run up to the final decisions being made in October, one can expect just about every special interest to be putting forward the case why they should be ‘left alone’. However and as I thought about it, there is rather more to this “Benefits Reform” and in a sense, the basic decision hinges around whether people expect help from the State on the basis of a ‘right’, a contractual basis or, on as ‘needed’ basis.

Read the rest of this entry »

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”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gilbert Adair wrote an article in yesterday’s Independent about him ‘falling out of love with Apple Mac’. I fell about laughing, it provoked a massive response which considering all the really important things in this world was as pathetic as it was funny but to me, not at all surprising, people do love their Totem Poles I guess.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/apple-a-love-affair-turned-sour-2053373.html

I have written before that the saddest thing about our consumer society is that in retail terms, the iPhone is the most ‘radical product’ to have been produced in the past 10 years – how totally depressing !

Read the rest of this entry »

My politics are right of centre which makes me a Tory I suppose. I detested Blair and New Labour for what they did to this Country and it’s economy through wilful stupidity. If I had been a Labour supporter, I would detest both Blair and Brown for their childish fratricidal ‘hollowing out’ of the Party so that today there is not one plausible candidate standing for the Party Leadership, just a bunch of talentless Muppets.

But all that said, let us not be curmudgeonly concerning Blair’s donation to the British Legion. You may speculate all you like as to his motivations but one must be fair to the man because he is effectively, if the figures are to be believed, giving away between a quarter to a third of his potential wealth.

One also has to realise that the “Blair Brand” is a depreciating asset so that it will become ever harder for him to earn money in the future as he has done since leaving Office. The further a person gets away from their time in power, not only are they quickly forgotten abroad as their co-stars of the period also leave the stage but once his memoirs are published, that is likely the end of Blair’s gravy train too and I am sure that both he and his wife are aware of this.

We all know that the England Team had a very poor World Cup Tournament in South Africa and last night they played their first game since then, a friendly against Hungary at Wembley. In the end England won 2-1, all goals coming in the second half.

I watched the first half but not the second which was quite brave really because if you support England, either you don’t watch it on TV live or, you watch it from behind the sofa. However, after South Africa, I watched with mild interest as I no longer felt that involved plus, at 9 o’clock in the evening, I had something more interesting to watch on another channel. However, from this match, the run up to it and the aftermath, there were a number of interesting things which I thought are worth a comment.

Read the rest of this entry »

By and large, I have always been of the view that it makes sense to replace the Trident Missile Submarines when required which is, I understand, in about 20 years time however and such is the gestation period of these things, we must start now. True, given the parlous state of the UK Finances, better not to have to find the estimated £20 billion cost but…

It should be the purpose of any personal blog to explore and consider ‘ideas’ that are outside of the mainstream or at the very least, “question” the current perceived wisdom. Wednesday bought the following: “The government should scale back the UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent to save money, a think tank has said. The Royal United Services Institute urged ministers to consider dropping the requirement of always having a nuclear submarine on patrol at sea.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10784192

This has prompted a number of thoughts…

Read the rest of this entry »