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Posts Tagged ‘Political Ideas’

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.

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A writer in the Independent today penned a piece entitled, “University is not right for everyone and that sentiment touches upon what I have felt for quite a few years now. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/philip-hensher/philip-hensher-university-isnrsquot-right-for-everyone-2053386.html

It is a simple fact of life that when only a few people take part in any particular activity, it tends to be ‘Fun’. Driving a car used to be fun before everyone had a car and were competing for the same bit of road space. Likewise, not only are our roads overcrowded but in these small islands subject to heavy commercial air traffic, so too are the skies. If you fancy flying privately, it is only tolerable whilst there are few other people wanting to do the same, faced with congestion and higher demand, rationing of any activity by “price or licence” is inevitable.

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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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There was a Court case going on that involved Prince Charles intervening in a proposed re-development of the Chelsea Barracks site so that the people financing it, the Qatrai Royal Family who are personal friends of ‘Chuckie’, pulled the plug on it. The Developers then decided to sue the Qataris for “Breach of Contract with the aim of getting the £80 million they would have made as ‘damages’.

They won’t suceed in this as planning consent hadn’t even been applied for so therefore their “loss” is minimal. I’m on Charlie Boy’s side but a rather pompous Editorial in the Independent wasn’t… http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-a-question-of-influence-not-aesthetics-2011034.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/an-unwelcome-intervention-what-judge-said-about-charles-2010989.html

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Whilst we all know that newspapers have been struggling for quite a time financially as their old business model of getting an income from sales of actual newspapers plus advertising revenue which combined to give them a profitable existence, has now virtually died. There is the current drive under way by Murdoch’s Newspapers to charge for web access but frankly, it is almost bound to fail.

The argument that there is no earthly reason why newspapers should give their content away for free is fair enough, the labourer is worthy of his or her hire but that said, one cannot help but wonder just why and given the financial resources available to companies like News Corporation, they have not yet evolved a new “business model” and my gut feeling is that they simply have failed to grasp the opportunity and have their feet still firmly planted in the past, could there be a better way ?

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As usual, John Rentoul in the Independent on Sunday wrote an interesting piece about Clegg and the LibDems teaming up with Cameron and the Conservatives rather than Labour. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-cleggs-right-to-cosy-up-to-cameron-1969230.html

Whilst I am a great fan of his articles, I had to point out a flaw which is all too common in the Media: “There is a lot of wishful thinking on the left about a progressive coalition that won 52 per cent of the vote in the election. Labour’s 29 per cent plus the Liberal Democrats’ 23 per cent outvotes the reactionary fox-hunting sceptic Tories with their measly 36 per cent.”

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There is a rather good article by Matthew Parris in today’s Times called: “Cameron’s hand is strong and he’ll play it well” worth a read although some of the readers comments are very odd as the Times practises quite annal censorship of those so, who knows http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article7120060.ece

The Independents lead Editorial was rather pathetic: “A result that confirms our electoral system is broken”: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-a-result-that-confirms-our-electoral-system-is-broken-1968245.html

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Well it is Sunday and to brighten my day, yet another highly intelligent article written by my erudite Left Wing ‘friend’, John Rentoul. I like this chap just as back in the 1980s, I loved reading Brian Waldren a former Labour MP who published in the London Evening Standard every Tuesday during ‘Maggie’s Years’.

In both cases, none of the ‘histrionics’ based upon their personal political beliefs, just straight forward and clear eyed analysis and comment based upon “what is today”. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-cameron-is-cheeky-but-right-1941241.html

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Sometimes one ‘story’ leads to another which whilst related is in fact entirely different. As I am in the throes of major re-decorations and the TV is buried in a room full of furniture, I didn’t see it but there was a TV Debate between Darling, Osborne and Cable – the Three Money Men. To be honest, would I have watched it anyway ? Hmm, rather like the TV Leader Debates, I suspect not.

The Independent wrote an Editorial on this which frankly, I thought a bit crappy but, judge for yourself: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-mr-osborne-has-given-the-voters-something-to-chew-on-1930685.html

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Much as I am fond of the US and its people, there are times when I do rather despair of the total naivety of some of them always demanding a black and white answer when the reality is nothing but a spectrum of greys going from black to white. A classic example of this was in Time magazine which I currently get on a weekly basis.

The question supposedly asked by Henry Kissinger: “Who do I call when I want to call Europe ?” Today as then and perhaps more so from a US perspective in these difficult times, the US wants to feel that there is a natural partner in the EU to help share the load but they really do need to wake up on this one because it is just never going to happen. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1967702,00.html

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