baldysblog.co.uk

Posts Tagged ‘UK Economy’

I must start by declaring that I am a thief of other’s intellectual property but whilst I do not know the photographer of the above picture I give full honour to them. However,  in ‘mitigation’ of my offence, I offer the following: It is a brilliant picture and whether intended or not, achieves a similar level in its own right because of the detail in the characters to the best of the Hogarth prints and as a statement on our current society.

Obviously the topic is the Public Sector strikes over changes to their pension ‘entitlements’ and as someone who sold pensions during the 1980s in the private sector when only people well beyond 40 could “envisage the whole idea”, I can hardly believe in this strike. This strike is not about pensions, it is about FEAR of the immediate, not the long term future !

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The Daily Telegraph has become, by and large, a bit of a ‘no go area’ for me, far too many moaning old duffers in the comments section to bother with, I personally suspect that it ought to be renamed, “The Daily Whineograph”. But if ‘politics’ on there is bad, the ‘motoring’ section is even worse…

Land Rover has a ‘concept’ vehicle which could form the basis of a ‘Defender’ (think original Land Rover, mud, farms etc.), replacement at a show in California and a DT journalist got to drive it and take pictures, the reader’s feedback was little short of hilarious and most of it seemed so totally out of touch with reality, I did have to have a pop ! However, what really engaged me was the whole issue of building upon a brand success without becoming tied into a long gone past.

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Although it was the “Comments” section of the Daily Telegraph that first got me started in writing my own blog, since the advent of comments being handled by Disqus, I don’t bother with the Telegraph that often these days. They do get an amazing number of people commenting on most articles but apart from one or two, they mainly seem to be a few shillings short of a full £ if not outright bonkers.

However, there was an interesting article by Benedict Brogan on Scottish Independence which is worth a read but has also led me to the Land of Loony Tunes… http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100116330/the-union-is-too-far-gone-to-be-saved-by-cameron-or-miliband

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So the Cannes G20 Summit has ended and as could be predicted, with very little achieved except a very clear message from the rest of the World to the EU and specifically, the Eurozone; “Get your house in order”. Sarkozy along with Merkel, will no doubt blame the Greeks and yet, Greece is but a symptom of an underlying disease called the “Euro”, a currency never destined to work for the benefit of all.

For France, the “Common Market” and the infamous CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), were designed so that inefficient French farmers could get a ‘subsidy’ that didn’t come from the French taxpayers, it came from all the other ‘Members’. As this has wound down, Germany has achieved a similar unfair bonus via the Euro, the point being that these two, for all their apparent “high moral ground” with regard to the Greeks, fail to see the mote in their own eyes.

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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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I must be feeling particularly “vinegary” the other day because I picked up on two pieces of total nonsense in The Independent and posted replies to both. The first was an ‘Editorial’ and I know, I have often complained about just how ‘amateur night’ the average Editorial in the ‘Indy’ is, they all seem to be written by children on work experience rather than grown up people but crap is crap and demands a response. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-a-cynical-response-to-the-rebellion-2376276.html

The second was by a half-wit called Andreas Wittam Smith, a total tosser if ever one breathed. His opus was to blame ‘Bankers’ for everything but without ever getting to grips with what is really wrong with our current society. Sure, Bankers are ‘tossers’ but his approach is little better than lambasting Undertakers for ‘dealing in death’. Another brainless old fool.

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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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I believe that David Cameron is a pretty good Prime Minister, truly a man for the times we live in, pragmatic not dogmatic, a cool and relaxed character so, I find his stance over the EU Referendum Debate not only odd but totally misguided, what on Earth is he thinking of in putting down a 3 line whip ?

Sorry, this is piss poor judgement and could have easily been avoided. David Cameron should never have painted himself into a corner over this one, it has a “cost” but no benefit for these Islands, him personally or even his Party in return for that cost. Daft Bugger this is where “Feet of Clay” get exposed !

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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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I have read various articles concerning the various protest campaigns on Wall Street, in London and so on but haven’t rushed to write about them as they seem to be all rather soft, confused, lacking in focus or with any particular goals in mind. In simple terms they are best summed up with a statement like; “We don’t like this and it isn’t fair…”

What no one has seemed to grasped and in this I include the Bankers, Industrialists and Politicians too, is the exact nature of the problem let alone, what kind of solutions may be applicable. In a sense, we all seem similarly as frozen and devoid of ideas as the Generals were when faced with trench warfare in WWI and the significance of including the statue of Cromwell in the graphic will I hope become clearer in due course.

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