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Posts Tagged ‘Politics’

Howard Jacobson wrote an interesting article in the Independent: “Civil liberties or civil protection – which is the more important?”

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/howard-jacobson/howard-jacobson-civil-liberties-or-civil-protection-ndash-which-is-the-more-important-1869544.html

The majority of people who mailed in were hostile to his stance but my own feeling was that neither ‘side’ was approaching the problems sensibly either.

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I was moderately amused by an editorial in today’s Independent which basically called for David Cameron to spell out all his policies and how he was going to achieve his goals. It struck me as a very silly idea as the man is not in a position to know just how bad things are and will not until he gets to Downing Street.

If we add in the fact that despite the scale of the financial crisis that has hit this Country, it was only a couple of days ago that the Labour Chancellor Darling, said openly that following the election, massive cuts in public spending will be required.

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There was an interesting article in today’s Independent by a chap called James Fishkin who quite amusingly calls himself “James S Fishkin” presumably to try and overcome a rather odd surname by adding some kind of gravitas to it.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/james-s-fishkin-the-58-ideas-that-could-hold-the-key-to-bringing-the-election-alive-1861198.html

Yes I am being disparaging because I went and looked at the web site of this outfit and was less than impressed because it misses the fundamentals of reform and political progress but judge for yourself my reasoning will follow. http://www.power2010.org.uk/

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The General Election if with rather a long run in, is now under way and a question often raised goes something like; “Why hasn’t Cameron sealed the deal with the electorate, Blair was streets ahead this time back in 1997.”

However whilst that is true, to expect the same pattern to day as in 1997 it is also to imagine that this is the ever optimistic USA rather than the UK where people tend to hold memories more than hopes, particularly as it is obvious that whoever forms the Government, we are entering an age of relative austerity.

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I suppose with the year drawing to a close it would be obvious that there would be lots of “assessments” by journalists concerning Obama’s first year in Office and how the Hope he bought for change and a different approach has actually played out during that time.

Inevitably there will be many who start to wonder whether he will turn out to be a “One Term President”, my gut instinct is that it is far too early to say because often it is the unforeseen “events” which determine the fate of Presidents and Prime Ministers based upon how they react.

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In yesterday’s Times, a Murdoch owned newspaper, there was a leading Editorial called: “Preparing for Government” and subtitled: “David Cameron seems content to drift into power on the back of Labour’s unpopularity. Even if this strategy succeeds it will provide no mandate to govern”. As ever I give you the link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6948033.ece

I will start with a copy of my ‘unpublished comment’ and whilst one may say based upon the content, “Fair Enough” but to be fair to the Times, they have published similar from me before so, I guess it depends who is on the “desk” at the time. However, there are other issues here too which need to be examined…

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Today was the first crisp cold morning as befits the First of December and considering that most of this blog is about my personal ramblings on ‘politics’, it set my mind to thinking around the current state of UK Politics with Christmas less than 4 weeks away and 2010 almost upon us.

Over these past couple of weeks, political journalism has taken a big nosedive and there is only one person to blame for this, Gordon Brown a politician who has not only passed his “Display By Date” long since but also the “Use By” one too, in short he is no longer fit for consumption and should have called a General Election in the Autumn.

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There was an interesting article written by a former soldier in the Independent calling on the public to have a vote on going to war or not: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/crispin-black-voters-must-decide-when-we-go-to-war-1830423.html

However it is nonsense because if Parliament is in thrall to the Executive, which given the rise of the “Career Politician” it is, we need to look at the Separation of Powers and a strengthening of the role of the MP and Parliamentary Committees as a check on the Executive and, other sanctions the electorate can directly impose on sitting MPs if they fail in their duties not, specific decisions.

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Although I don’t always comment and likely sometimes comment too much to stuff on the web but, an article by Dominic Lawson on Afghanistan in the Independent and the reader’s comments that followed, did make me stop and think for awhile about the predicament we are in currently. /www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-the-only-options-are-to-double-up-in-afghanistan-or-leave-1817739.html

Combined with Remembrance Sunday, the nasty little Sun inspired row on Brown’s handwriting and 6 British Soldiers bodies being repatriated today, the concentration of most people is on the “particular and specific” which is understandable. However and without wishing to be an “Armchair General”, we must also have an awareness of the broader picture too in deciding policy and as citizens, supporting that policy.

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Data is a highly valuable commodity and yet this does not seem to have penetrated the conciousness of the Government and it’s employees which is little short of extraordinary in 2007. The current story of the “Taxman” loosing on two disks, a copy of a database containing the details of 15 million names, addresses, including children, is shocking but what it points to is both a totally wrong culture and bad line management.

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