baldysblog.co.uk

Posts Tagged ‘Within the UK’

Today Nick Clegg was featured in the Independent spouting off about what kind of post election deal he would be looking for and so on, I am just not convinced and neither I suspect are the electorate at large. On top of that, I am not that sure that a “Hung Parliament” will actually come about either, I suspect that the public will choose between more of Brown and Labour or David Cameron.

The reality is that Clegg and the LibDems have failed miserably to capitalize on Labours weakened position over these past two years. By now in the polls, the LibDems should have pushed Labour into third place on a potential 17-18 percent of the vote and they haven’t.

Read the rest of this entry »

I must admit to becoming a fan of one of the regular Independent columnists John Rentoul because although I think his natural instincts are likely left wing, his approach is very broad and he examines issues without bias and lots of common sense.

Today he was writing on the narrowing of the polls between Labour and the Conservatives, well worth a read: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-policies-smash-personalities-1912985.html

And another one but if one is crystal ball gazing, well worth a read: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-convention-says-voters-like-big-spending-governmentsits-wrong-1912836.html

Read the rest of this entry »

Whilst I could never understand the economic rationale behind setting up the Eurozone which was always a total nonsense to me, the political case was obvious for those who believed in a “United States of Europe”, another nonsense if ever there was one. But whilst I have no love for either, I certainly wish them no harm because the UK is outside the Eurozone and hopefully in due course we shall be outside of the EU too.

The Media is full of stories about the economic crisis in Greece which is in the Euro but in deep shit because of the way it ran its budget therefore the question is: “Will the richer Eurozone countries bail Greece out ? Is this the first test for the Euro and will the currency fail if they can’t or don’t do so ?” To be honest the real problem has nothing to do with this in any case in my opinion…

Read the rest of this entry »

To my mind, the most disturbing feature of the MPs “Expenses Scandal” has been the obsequious behaviour of the Media in being unprepared to tackle the real issues involved head on, like politicians themselves, they appear too scared of the “public outrage”.

This public outrage I suspect, has as much to do with with the pomposity of the Labour Government and in particular one Gordon Brown who it is now clear, made a total horlicks of the UK economy whilst Chancellor whilst boasting that he had abolished Boom and Bust. In addition, this Parliament has effectively been dead since sometime during 2008, there should have been a 2009 election and political clear out of Westminster then.

Read the rest of this entry »

The following is a totally daft tale but sadly, true and concerns BT the so called telecommunications company who have designed a system to ensure that as a customer, you will never ever be allowed to ‘disturb a manager’ with a question or a complaint

On my return from living and working in the States I rented a flat in Bedfont, near Heathrow Airport and at the time BT launched ‘broadband’ which was technically fine except that they wanted you to pay for it monthly by Credit Card for some bizarre reason.

Read the rest of this entry »

We all like a clearly defined villain, someone we can all hate without fear of contradiction that we as individuals have made a mistake. There have been two stories in the past year running in the UK that have both these elements: MP’s Expenses and Banker’s Bonuses.

In both cases I believe that the “Perceived Wisdom”is totally wrong, worse a “cover up” and President Obama’s threats to limit American Banks in both size and scope, probably foolish and his message is more ‘politically populist’ than the sound of common sense. The reality behind both of these stories is something called complacency…

Read the rest of this entry »

Although obviously a Labour supporter, a regular contributor to the Independent is John Rentoul who often writes very interesting articles that concentrate on trying to analyse the issues rather than trotting out left wing propaganda, he is always worth reading.

His article in Sunday’s edition is very well worth a read: “How many years out in the cold?” Sub heading; “Labour is likely to lose the general election. Its main concern now is damage limitation “ http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-how-many-years-out-in-the-cold-1870275.html

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

There was an Editorial in the Independent today that whilst calling for a Defence Review ended with saying that “obviously” we should cooperate with Europe more on Defence. It amazes me that supposedly intelligent people can’t grasp basic facts and realise that they are looking down the wrong end of the ruddy telescope.

It is not just about Defence, it is about every aspect of major Government spending and Health is a good example. The Labour reforms in funding of the NHS were first trialled in Scotland, much of the additional funding ended up being spent on increased wages not improved outcomes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Someone called Liz Hoggard wrote an article extolling the benefits of legally enforceable, all women lists to become MPs. In my opinion, this woman is a total smug metropolitan media person with hardly a clue on her very best day.

This woman has neither any pride nor any shame and is typical of the NIMBY, chattering classes, generation she belongs to, vacuous in both mind and spirit, I’m aware that the Indy has financial problems but allowing a daft cow like this to write is surely not the “answer to their prayers” plus the above picture is likely 15 years out of date too.

Read the rest of this entry »