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Posts Tagged ‘Politicians’

Right now I’m having to master PHP programming and am working from several different books. I was amused by one author who having ended an introductory chapter and about to launch into the real world coding examples, wrote “…and bring a shovel with you…”

The implication being that it will get harder and you will need to dig deep to get through this… It struck me just how true that is of the World Economy right now too with a G20 about to start, one wonders whether they will be smart enough to avoid the pending economic disaster. If the unrealistic fudge we saw in the Eurozone last week is anything to go by and the uproar caused by the Greeks holding a Referendum, one suspects not.

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There was interesting article in The Independent written by Hamish McRae in which he basically said that we should not expect too much from the “Euro Summit” and basically all they can hope to do is buy more time, there are no magic solutions. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-europes-leaders-first-need-to-buy-themselves-time-2375813.html

I tend to agree totally with the view that “Summit Meetings” are of little practical significance as whether on the Euro, EU, SALT Treaties and so on, all the real work and agreements have been done before the public event takes place, which only to give a “blessing” to what has already been agreed. Of course with this Euro Summit, nothing crucial has been agreed yet anyway.

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With the fall of Sirte and more importantly the death of Gaddafi, this phase of Libya’s past ends and a promising if difficult future beckons. Yes, it could all go horribly wrong but providing the Libyans keep their heads cool, a small population of 6 million, substantial oil based income and therefore the money to rebuild their infrastructure, if corruption can be avoided, their future will be very bright indeed.

David Cameron was quite rightly very businesslike in what he said following the news concerning the death of Gaddafi but I have been quite amused by some of the comments and their undertones which have been made by some that can be summed up as: “Now like Tony Blair, he has got a successful war under his belt, he might get a taste for it…” I have to wonder just how perceptive or sober some of these people are, these are very silly words.

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The resignation of Liam Fox was inevitable given the time the ‘scandal’ had run, the ‘common wisdom’ being that if you can’t kill it within 2-3 news cycles, you are in trouble, longer and you are ‘Toast’ and 10 days or so in, the consequences were obvious especially as more “revelations” came out.

In addition, his personal ‘connections’ and relationships, were not ‘above suspicion’ as “Caesar’s Wife” must always be… However, from the beginning and whilst acknowledging that Dr Liam Fox was very foolish in all this and therefore deserves the outcome, at the same time I was very amused by just how this played out and how many people may well have shot themselves in the foot in the process of “shooting their Fox”. Be very careful what you wish for in this Life comes to mind…just in case it comes to pass…

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The ‘row’ over the the “Human Rights Act” between Ken Clarke and Theresa May at the Conservative Party Conference is in one sense totally artificial, she a ‘populist’ Tory politician, he a rather complacent chap, on the surface affable but also arrogantly deaf to the genuine concerns of British people over both the ECHR and our membership of the EU.

As to whether the existence of a “pussy cat” was used by a Judge to demonstrate that an illegal immigrant had a “family life” in the UK and therefore could not be deported, isn’t really totally relevant, it seems feasible based upon the public’s perception of how this Act often seems to run counter to common sense in the way it has been applied.

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The often repeated “common wisdom” concerning the Tories getting booted out of Office in 1997 was that following the ERM débâcle, they had lost their one trump card in the mind of the public even if those people normally voted Labour that the “Tories were good on the economy…”

Personally I never bought into this, Major had a tiny majority and a group of troublesome anti-EU MPs, I suspect that this disunity which made this Country look stupid plus they had been in power for a long time led to people wanting a complete change and a fresh start. A house divided will always fall and myopic politicians constantly riding their hobby horses are never an attractive sight…

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Yesterday on a reader’s comments section of one of the papers, a chap who claimed that he was a Tory wrote that in his opinion, Labour were “odds on” to win the next Election and it made me stop and ponder the possibility, my conclusion was that whilst all results are possible, Labour “odds on ?” I really can’t imagine that under pretty much any circumstances.

The economic situation will get considerably worse and it will lead to the greatest fall in real living standards for the vast majority of the UK population within living memory with the poorest taking the biggest ‘hit’ but that will just reflect what happens globally. In theory this should lead to lots of waving and singing of the “Red Flag” but it still won’t lead to the current Labour Party getting elected, the British public is far too sophisticated for that…

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In a sense, the Labour Party Annual Conference that runs through this week, is likely the most pointless exercise that anyone could imagine this year. Just how does any Party Leader following 13 years in power that resulted in abject failure, “Rally His or Her Troops” ? The answer of course is that you can’t except lead them off into some cloud cuckoo land where they feel ‘comfortable’.

Ed Miliband was voted in by the Unions quite cynically, they knew that any “next leader” would be a political space filler, rather like the Tories electing IDS as their leader so, why waste any effort on them, “make ‘em nice, human and we will dump them as soon as favourable opportunities arise…” It is called ‘politics’. The funniest thing that will be on view this week is Ed Miliband knowing the score, trying to make headway and upset all expectations…

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I will start by saying that having been born and brought up as a Roman Catholic, I have a strong aversion to abortion whilst accepting that there may well be cases where Doctors might consider it an appropriate “therapy”. But that said, if life is sacrosanct then mealy mouthed descriptions of exactly when an embryo becomes “real” do rather leave me cold.

The perception of ‘exception’ fades into insignificance when in the UK there are 200,000 abortions a year which apparently represents 20% of all pregnancies resulting in a “termination”, yet another mealy mouthed description. However, having made my position clear, I also think that it is a major mistake to present the arguments against abortion in a typical ‘Pro-Life’ fashion, that will never work in this society people need a broader base upon which to form an opinion.

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The other day there was an article concerning scrapping the huge NHS IT project that had got under way whilst Blair and his “Wild Bunch” were in power. The whole project just like the one on ID Cards was totally flawed from outset and before a Penny had been spent.

As a result, many experienced people from the IT Industry did warn the Government about both but their warnings fell of deaf ears the article that explains the story is as follows: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-pulls-the-plug-on-its-11bn-it-system-2330906.html

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