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Posts Tagged ‘Politicians’

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…

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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”.

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There was a piece in today’s Independent by Dominic Lawson in which he stated that “Our Banks are doing a good job”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-our-banks-are-doing-a-good-job-2041713.html

In fact and whilst not a fashionable view, I suspect that he is right and to a large extent, they are rather caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea whatever they do over the next few years and in this, are in a similar position to Members of Parliament.

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There is a piece in the Sunday Telegraph today following their questioning of various Economists which produced a majority view that suggests that the Euro as a currency, is likely to cease to exist within the next 5 years and possibly sooner: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/budget/7806064/Euro-will-be-dead-in-five-years.html

Obviously this has been bought about by the Greek crisis in particular and the state of the PIIGS generally however, it represents a far more interesting illustration of a fundamental flaw with the whole idea of the EU and in particular, the rather dubious methods employed by those who see themselves as the “Ruling Elite of Europe” to further their Federalist aims, one hears the distant rumble of the Tumbrils in the streets…

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David Laws who was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury under the Coalition and despite a promising start especially in the House of Commons last week, has had to resign due to the Daily Telegraph exposing that he is Gay and had been paying his boyfriend rent on his house though paying a ‘partner’ rent has been banned since 2006, apparently. He is wealthy in his own right having made his money in “The City” by the age of 28.

He has said that the reason he did this was he wanted to keep his private life and sexuality secret which one might say that in these apparently “more liberated days”, seems sad but coming out to family and friends will never be easy and childhood background plus ‘assumed social norms’ could intimidate most people but never the less, it is a sad loss though, the clear and ‘warm’ support he received from David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg over his resignation was a nice touch.

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The Independent in its infinite wisdom has decided to change the way it deals with readers comments on articles, a move designed to increase boredom and decrease any valid ‘debate’. I have lived through this before; It was contributing to the Telegraph that first led me to set up this blog back in November 2007 but they too decided to change their “readers comments” set-up and turn the whole thing to boring dross and now too the ‘Indy’ follows – Oh Well…there you go.

But the reason that I mention this is simply that of only a couple of regular Independent columnists worth reading, John Rentoul is one and the starting point for this particular blog was an entry he made on the ‘old system’ so whereas I would normally just give you a web link, as this may disappear into the ether, I have had to quote the key passages which I dislike because it is other people’s copyright:-

John Rentoul: The Hung Parliament Party – http://johnrentoul.independentminds.livejournal.com/408639.html

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With a new Parliament gathering, there is the opportunity to elect a new Speaker. In my opinion, Bercow has not demonstrated the type of energetic leadership that was required after Martin stepped down and set against the background of the “Expenses Scandal” so, he needs to be replaced and likely by someone with a bit of gravitas and or intellectual wit.

At the time and although neither put themselves forward, I thought that either Frank Field or Vince Cable would be excellent candidates.

Of course one could argue that until the issue of the Separation of Powers between the Executive and the Legislature is resolved, there is currently no longer under the existing state of the Constitution, any particular reason that the Speaker is a sitting MP, their job could be done by a whole number of outside people – Speaker Paxman ?

With Gordon Brown’s departure from Downing Street yesterday and his also standing down as Labour Leader with immediate effect, there will be a Labour leadership contest in the fairly immediate future and this raises some interesting forward projections.

Donald Macintyre wrote an article in the Independent on this but frankly, I don’t think that he has got the right angle on it. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/donald-macintyre/donald-macintyre-labours-leadership-needs-the-stamp-of-a-genuinely-new-era-1971404.html

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Today, Gordon Brown announced that he was ‘standing down’ as Labour Party Leader but insisted that he stayed on as Prime Minister to “oversee” a Lib/Lab pact which wont deliver a Parliamentary majority without being reliant on any and every demand made by Celtic fringe political parties so that, is not good news and it got worse.

Nick Clegg can’t ‘deliver’ the Parliamentary Liberal Democrat Party so, they are running parallel discussions with both the Conservatives and Labour on forming a “Coalition Government” and the Tories have ‘upped’ their offer to maximum, a Referendum on the electoral system. Unfortunately, most LibDem MPs would favour Labour over the Tories so, it looks like we are headed to Hell in a hand cart and another election by September…Oh Joy !

Between now and then, all we can expect is a worsening “financial situation” followed by a Conservative landslide at the second General Election of 2010 with for a few months, David Muppetband as Prime Minister…the cowardly little runt.

In what I consider a truly odd move, the Times did a sub-editorial on Bercow continuing as Speaker: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article7112263.ece My comment on this was simply as follows below:

I must disagree with this article, not because “…his oratory can occasionally mutate into pomposity…” But simply because he is not up to the Job and even if re-elected, should be voted out of Office by the new Parliament.

Especially in these times, the House needs a Speaker that reaches out to the public over and above the heads of the Members, honourable or not. In short we need a Lord Tonipandy or a Betty Boothroyd not this dullard and introverted member of a ‘club’. The historical role of the Speaker has changed radically since the Civil War, today the Speaker should in a sense, represent us as in “I will keep YOUR Parliament honest”.

Bercow is not up to this task and has had sufficient time to have made an impact but, failed to do so. If he was a plant one might say, “It hasn’t taken and established itself, best pull it up and shove it in the compost !”