Why is it that so many people in both the government and the media are promoting the idea of a coming recession? We have had the govener of the Bank of England telling us for months that one is coming, the chancellor predicting that this is going to be the worse for years and all the economic pundits on tv and in the press rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect. Could it be that by telling everybody that they may lose their homes and jobs unless they curb their spending, though I think that even the the most stupid person in the street would realise that has nothing to do with the state of the economics of the world or the country. Its a really good distraction from the fact that capitalism is starting to implode. We are now seeing a state run banking system along the lines of a nationalist run mixed economy.
You see the big problem I have is that yes share prices are as low now as they were five years ago but no body mentioned a recession then in fact it was a state of elation. Now we have a state where in years first time buyers can afford to buy a house at a price they can afford. Isn't that what the government wanted a few years ago, so they were going to build affordable housing. Well now they don't need to.
The another problem I have is where has all the money gone? You just can't wake up one morning to find $60 billion gone and you don't know where it is. I understand that they have lent money as mortgages to people who can't pay it back but then don't they have the value of the house, that one presumes they own and then can't they rent it out to people who can pay a realistic rent so that some of the money can be recouped, if not perhaps instantly but certainly over a longer period.
The banks are still lending each other money at extreme interest rates. Surely there has to be a stop to this unless of course I am going to get my own investment through the government paid with a high rate of interest. Surely there has to be a unilateral ruling by governments to stop the same thing from happening again. While we are on interest rates why do credit cards have to be so high. Surely if the rate was lower then borrowers would be able to pay it off quicker so lessening the risk and then being able to use the card sooner to buy more things so helping the economy by keeping the shops alive.
I am concerned that the government can raise money to fund the banking system but have to rely on people selling poppies in the street to look after servicemen and women, who need to be treated with dignity and care. These men and women have put their lives in the hands of governments who for whatever reason have got themselves emersed in a war, and then when these brave people return they are treated like used consumer units. This attitude is so prevelent throughout the country. Soldiers sailors workers nurses teachers are all treated as units, not as living people. There has to be a shift in the mental picture of those in power and stop treating people, the citizens of this country as nothing more than statistics.
What do I mean by this, well the air ambulence service is kept in the air by charitable donations, yet we can spend millions on buying equiping and manning military helicopters? Its not just a single figure on a piece of paper its someones son, daughetr ,husband and wife that need to treated quickly and it is that person who may or maynot survive. Children are in danger from abuse yet the NSPCC is a charity. We are surrounded by sea and yet the lifeboatmen are volunteers.
I can understand why they probably want to stay out of the government hands as the first thing that would happen would be a whole set of rules enforced about what they can and cannot do, the costs would have to be looked at by a government inspector and they would have to have their own minister whose wages would buy a new boat for the RNLI. And then of course in a turn down in the economy there would have to be cut backs.
There has to be a radical shift in thinking. We cannot rely on the boom and bust of economics, or try to live by technology yet still maintain the victorian attitudes to workforce and employability. Workers now thanks to the last economic debacle are now serious stakeholders in the running of the banks and the country's economic affairs and if the chancellor and the banking giants think that the unions are content with being told thet there is no money to pay workers or expand the national areas of concern such as health and education, then they may just ask for their investment back. The government could always go and ask the ex chief of Lehmans. Poor thing after all he only has $310 million in the bank. I am assuming it wasn't his own bank.
Sunday, 26 October 2008
Thursday, 11 September 2008
wierd and wonderful
As far as I understand it, fuel prices are going up because of the cost of oil, but OPEC announced that they are slowing down production of oil to stop the fall in price. Yet again its the the poor old man/woman in the street who is subsidising the shareholders. What's the government's great plan? Well they are getting the power companies and the tax payer to subsidise energy saving devices. A nice idea but with a flaw. If the householders can't afford to pay for the energy bill of £1000 a year then how are they going to afford double glazing even if it is subsidsed because they still have to fork out for the energy bill as well as the double glazing.
The prices should be capped and if the companies don't like it threaten them with nationalisation. You remember that. When we the taxpayer owned the company but then it was sold back to us even though we now owned it on the idea that the services would be more efficient and cheaper. Well that was a false economy and another blatent short term political expedient.
We have the chancellor and the head of the Bank of England and the head of the CBI all telling us that there is a recession coming, well what are they going to do about it. We pay them very large salaries to avoid these kind of situations not to state the obvious. If they can't do the job, or if they haven't got the correct experts to solve the problem , then get some.
I would like to know how it is that after the war in the 1950's, when there was very little, we had an education system to be proud of, a national health service that cared about its patients, streets that were safe, people that were polite and kids who repected their elders. Bus drivers weren't attacked and there was a minimal amount of paperwork. We are supposed to have progressed and in some ways we have. I can now order a variety of products on line, I can listen to any kind of music and the variety of foods and consumers goods are endless, but we seem to have lost our way somewhere along the way. We have exchanged our ethics for the equivilent of a pot noodle. We are supposed to be better off now than ever. No it just means that we can buy more things, but are lives are now hollow.
We have global warming, a mountain of rubbish that won't go away, a highly dangerous power source that we can't stop or close down, yet governments all across the globe are ignoring the facts because of political expediency. The idea that if we cap companies that are making too large a profit and that they will go away is rubbish. When America put the oil embargo on Cuba, it changed its whole policy on energy. I hope we might actually start thinking with our brains and not with our calculators.
The energy crisis is man made therefore it can be solved by man. The alternative technology has been around for decades but has been subdued by companies that have their own interests at heart. The food crises is not a new situation. Over the years poor wages and political policy has destroyed the farming across the country. This country can and has been self sufficient in food. The farmers have had a poor deal but they have also brought it upon themselves. They were quite happy to accept the European hand outs based on a policy of stupidity and progress. The same progress that has us now in the midst of an energy and food shortage.
Do you know what I doubt if any of the power company executives are going to turn their fires off and put on extra jumpers because they can't afford to heat their houses. Just remember when the government sit in their warm offices with computers on stand by and their ministers are driven home in their large cars, we the taxpayer fund that lifestyle. Not the bosses of the power companies but the man and woman in the street.
The prices should be capped and if the companies don't like it threaten them with nationalisation. You remember that. When we the taxpayer owned the company but then it was sold back to us even though we now owned it on the idea that the services would be more efficient and cheaper. Well that was a false economy and another blatent short term political expedient.
We have the chancellor and the head of the Bank of England and the head of the CBI all telling us that there is a recession coming, well what are they going to do about it. We pay them very large salaries to avoid these kind of situations not to state the obvious. If they can't do the job, or if they haven't got the correct experts to solve the problem , then get some.
I would like to know how it is that after the war in the 1950's, when there was very little, we had an education system to be proud of, a national health service that cared about its patients, streets that were safe, people that were polite and kids who repected their elders. Bus drivers weren't attacked and there was a minimal amount of paperwork. We are supposed to have progressed and in some ways we have. I can now order a variety of products on line, I can listen to any kind of music and the variety of foods and consumers goods are endless, but we seem to have lost our way somewhere along the way. We have exchanged our ethics for the equivilent of a pot noodle. We are supposed to be better off now than ever. No it just means that we can buy more things, but are lives are now hollow.
We have global warming, a mountain of rubbish that won't go away, a highly dangerous power source that we can't stop or close down, yet governments all across the globe are ignoring the facts because of political expediency. The idea that if we cap companies that are making too large a profit and that they will go away is rubbish. When America put the oil embargo on Cuba, it changed its whole policy on energy. I hope we might actually start thinking with our brains and not with our calculators.
The energy crisis is man made therefore it can be solved by man. The alternative technology has been around for decades but has been subdued by companies that have their own interests at heart. The food crises is not a new situation. Over the years poor wages and political policy has destroyed the farming across the country. This country can and has been self sufficient in food. The farmers have had a poor deal but they have also brought it upon themselves. They were quite happy to accept the European hand outs based on a policy of stupidity and progress. The same progress that has us now in the midst of an energy and food shortage.
Do you know what I doubt if any of the power company executives are going to turn their fires off and put on extra jumpers because they can't afford to heat their houses. Just remember when the government sit in their warm offices with computers on stand by and their ministers are driven home in their large cars, we the taxpayer fund that lifestyle. Not the bosses of the power companies but the man and woman in the street.
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Sophie Lancaster
Two teenagers were given life sentences today for murdering 20-year-old Sophie Lancaster because she was a goth.
Passing sentence the judge called the murder a "hate crime" against completely harmless people because of their appearance.
Ryan Herbert, 16, who had pleaded guilty before the trial started last month, was jailed for life today at Preston crown court and ordered to serve a minimum of 16 years. His accomplice, Brendan Harris, 15, who was found guilty at trial, was given a life sentence with a minimum of 18 years.
Passing sentence today, Judge Anthony Russell QC, told the defendants he thought their behaviour in court had been unacceptable and described it as "swaggering".
"I noticed the wink that one of you exchanged with the public gallery when the murder charge was not proceeded with against you and that one of you thought it appropriate to shout out 'love you mum".'
Detectives investigating the murder criticised the conduct of the defendants and their families throughout the criminal proceedings as "appalling".
Harris and his mother were said to have been "laughing and joking" when they were first interviewed about the incident.
Harris, of Spring Terrace, Bacup, had denied the murder charge but pleaded guilty to assault causing grievous bodily harm to Maltby.
Herbert, of Rossendale Crescent, Bacup, pleaded guilty to murder and assault.
During the trial it also emerged that Harris had been convicted of kicking and stamping on a 16-year-old in April 2007. He and Herbert, who was also involved, were given six-month community sentences.
Brothers Joseph, 17, and Danny Hulme, 16, both of Landgate, Whitworth, near Bacup, and Daniel Mallett, 17, of Rockcliffe Drive, Bacup, all pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent on Maltby. They did not take part in the attack on Sophie, the court was told.
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday April 28 2008. It was last updated at 17:35 on April 28 2008.
I have posted this section of the article because I do not want the names of these evil monsters to be forgotten. Sophie is dead and will never have the opportunity to experience all the joys and sorrows that life may bring. The chances are that all the convicted will be back out on the streets at some point, in the case of those who pleaded guilty to GBH probably in not more than 5 years. They will still have the opportunity to laugh and cry and experience. Will they ever feel regret? I doubt it. Will they ever feel remorse? Unlikely. So what will have been gained? Very little. This makes the whole situation even sadder. It also demands that we as a society look into our hearts and decide once and for all what the value of a life is. I, for one, hope that all those who were involved in this viscious, callous and cowardly attack have miserable lives full of pain and suffering.
Passing sentence the judge called the murder a "hate crime" against completely harmless people because of their appearance.
Ryan Herbert, 16, who had pleaded guilty before the trial started last month, was jailed for life today at Preston crown court and ordered to serve a minimum of 16 years. His accomplice, Brendan Harris, 15, who was found guilty at trial, was given a life sentence with a minimum of 18 years.
Passing sentence today, Judge Anthony Russell QC, told the defendants he thought their behaviour in court had been unacceptable and described it as "swaggering".
"I noticed the wink that one of you exchanged with the public gallery when the murder charge was not proceeded with against you and that one of you thought it appropriate to shout out 'love you mum".'
Detectives investigating the murder criticised the conduct of the defendants and their families throughout the criminal proceedings as "appalling".
Harris and his mother were said to have been "laughing and joking" when they were first interviewed about the incident.
Harris, of Spring Terrace, Bacup, had denied the murder charge but pleaded guilty to assault causing grievous bodily harm to Maltby.
Herbert, of Rossendale Crescent, Bacup, pleaded guilty to murder and assault.
During the trial it also emerged that Harris had been convicted of kicking and stamping on a 16-year-old in April 2007. He and Herbert, who was also involved, were given six-month community sentences.
Brothers Joseph, 17, and Danny Hulme, 16, both of Landgate, Whitworth, near Bacup, and Daniel Mallett, 17, of Rockcliffe Drive, Bacup, all pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent on Maltby. They did not take part in the attack on Sophie, the court was told.
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday April 28 2008. It was last updated at 17:35 on April 28 2008.
I have posted this section of the article because I do not want the names of these evil monsters to be forgotten. Sophie is dead and will never have the opportunity to experience all the joys and sorrows that life may bring. The chances are that all the convicted will be back out on the streets at some point, in the case of those who pleaded guilty to GBH probably in not more than 5 years. They will still have the opportunity to laugh and cry and experience. Will they ever feel regret? I doubt it. Will they ever feel remorse? Unlikely. So what will have been gained? Very little. This makes the whole situation even sadder. It also demands that we as a society look into our hearts and decide once and for all what the value of a life is. I, for one, hope that all those who were involved in this viscious, callous and cowardly attack have miserable lives full of pain and suffering.
Monday, 30 June 2008
Positive Discrimination
From the very outset there is no such thing as positive discrimination. If one group is being favoured it negatively discriminates against all others. The idea that women and ethnic minorities should be put above other groups is wrong. It creates a feeling of injustice. I agree that the world is an imperfect place but you can only gain a utopian society of equality through education, by the abolition through practice, that what we call bigotry, but really is just another word for ignorance.
All positions have to be based on the ability of a person to do the job. Being a woman does not mean that they have any special insight into how to run a company or be an MP than a man does, but its their ability to do the job in hand that counts. This new law does two of the most divise things that have happened in recent years. It discriminates against middle class white men, the majority of the working population, more by historical factors than anything else and it allows the ignorant to claim a racial argument. I agree that all people should be paid the same as anybody else for the same job, but introducing a quota system as they have in Norway can only create a feeling of unrest and disharmony. I bet the BNP could not believe their luck when this new law was first muted. This is their next election campaign already written for them.
This is not a utopian society, in fact as every day goes by it becomes more and dystopian, but this law will not help. Unless of course you take it to the fullest extent.
After all surely its discrimination for MP's to be paid for a second home. I don't and as I'm paying for theirs surely they could pay for mine. In a world of equality which this law pretends to be a key text, where does equality start and end. Surely all people who work in the public sector should be given the same opportunity to have their second home expenses paid by the state. I actually can't see why the government don't buy a block of flats or a gated community and house the MP's in it, so that when they are unelected they can take over from the previous incumbent. One in as one goes out.
I know this seems to be on the trivial side of things but actually its not. A great many people cannot afford to pay for the single dwelling that they are living in, without MP's bleeting about how hard done by they are. Their is a choice of profession like everybody elses. I know several people who live in one part of the country and have to travel regularly on business to other parts. Their company does not pay for a second house for them. They have to stay in a reasonable priced hotel.
Students have to stay in a hall of residence provided for by the university which they pay for. An obvious template if ever I saw one. They are secure and affordable housing for people to sleep, eat and study.
Students come in for a bit of bad press. It has been said that they are all too thick so that the degrees are being devalued, but then if universities are devaluing the degrees to keep their figures up due to market forces then why should the government complain. Its exactly what they wanted, that market forces dictate the level of the product. You can't complain on one hand that universities are manipulating results to keep student numbers up when funding comes from the government who dictate how much funding is allocated based on student numbers.
The governemt have to decide if education is going to be a degree factory or if its going to be something that is worth while and an investment in the future on behalf of the country. The government have lost the point of education. They know how much it costs but they seemed to have lost its value.
Education is now driven by paperwork and league tables and statistics. The trouble with all these things is that they are all perceptive based.
A school may well achieve high standing in the league tables, but some schools are producing some really good members of society who will build our houses, dig our roads, get up at 3 in the morning to enable others to get to work. They don't get involved in crime, drugs, or violent acts. They will go unflinchingly to war if asked but according to the governemt figures they are failures.
It seems very strange that in their strive to achieve excellence through legislation that ordinary people like me never seem to come into the good figures, in fact ordinary people like me are discriminated against, because we just get on and do the job, don't make fuss or expect anything other than we get. Now thats positive.
All positions have to be based on the ability of a person to do the job. Being a woman does not mean that they have any special insight into how to run a company or be an MP than a man does, but its their ability to do the job in hand that counts. This new law does two of the most divise things that have happened in recent years. It discriminates against middle class white men, the majority of the working population, more by historical factors than anything else and it allows the ignorant to claim a racial argument. I agree that all people should be paid the same as anybody else for the same job, but introducing a quota system as they have in Norway can only create a feeling of unrest and disharmony. I bet the BNP could not believe their luck when this new law was first muted. This is their next election campaign already written for them.
This is not a utopian society, in fact as every day goes by it becomes more and dystopian, but this law will not help. Unless of course you take it to the fullest extent.
After all surely its discrimination for MP's to be paid for a second home. I don't and as I'm paying for theirs surely they could pay for mine. In a world of equality which this law pretends to be a key text, where does equality start and end. Surely all people who work in the public sector should be given the same opportunity to have their second home expenses paid by the state. I actually can't see why the government don't buy a block of flats or a gated community and house the MP's in it, so that when they are unelected they can take over from the previous incumbent. One in as one goes out.
I know this seems to be on the trivial side of things but actually its not. A great many people cannot afford to pay for the single dwelling that they are living in, without MP's bleeting about how hard done by they are. Their is a choice of profession like everybody elses. I know several people who live in one part of the country and have to travel regularly on business to other parts. Their company does not pay for a second house for them. They have to stay in a reasonable priced hotel.
Students have to stay in a hall of residence provided for by the university which they pay for. An obvious template if ever I saw one. They are secure and affordable housing for people to sleep, eat and study.
Students come in for a bit of bad press. It has been said that they are all too thick so that the degrees are being devalued, but then if universities are devaluing the degrees to keep their figures up due to market forces then why should the government complain. Its exactly what they wanted, that market forces dictate the level of the product. You can't complain on one hand that universities are manipulating results to keep student numbers up when funding comes from the government who dictate how much funding is allocated based on student numbers.
The governemt have to decide if education is going to be a degree factory or if its going to be something that is worth while and an investment in the future on behalf of the country. The government have lost the point of education. They know how much it costs but they seemed to have lost its value.
Education is now driven by paperwork and league tables and statistics. The trouble with all these things is that they are all perceptive based.
A school may well achieve high standing in the league tables, but some schools are producing some really good members of society who will build our houses, dig our roads, get up at 3 in the morning to enable others to get to work. They don't get involved in crime, drugs, or violent acts. They will go unflinchingly to war if asked but according to the governemt figures they are failures.
It seems very strange that in their strive to achieve excellence through legislation that ordinary people like me never seem to come into the good figures, in fact ordinary people like me are discriminated against, because we just get on and do the job, don't make fuss or expect anything other than we get. Now thats positive.
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Petrol
As far as I understand it, the problem is that we are in a credit crunch and are trying to avoid rising inflation at the same time. As far as I understand it it was to avoid this kind of situation that the Bank of England became independent of government. So tell me why is everybody in such a bad way. When I first bought a fridge it cost an enormous part of my wages now it cost the same as filling my car twice with petrol. You can't ask people to keep their wages down while allowing prices to rise.
Gordon could ease the pain of the fuel crises by stopping the duty on the vat that we pay for the petrol. He could stop it for the time while petrol is above the pound mark. Ah I hear you say that means that we the tax payer will be susidising petrol companies. Well if you start making it law that imported cars must have bio-fuels only. If cars start to not use petrol then the petrol that would be used to run cars would become a surfiet and consequently cheaper. I realise that this may be fantasy in the short term but how about having some form of integrated thought, in other words joined up government.
There are riots in the streets in Europe due to food shortages, caused by the transport system falling apart due to the increase in petrol;. I hate to remind the students of history the last time there was a food shortage in Europe. If you think that the BNP are not going to take advantage of this failure in government, you are mistaken.
The answer lies in the governments hands. Reduce duty, get the Govenor of the Bank of England to resign. He should have done so after the Northern Rock debacle, and get someone in with radical ideas, after all how worse can it get, I suppose the trouble is in the past its always been the ploy to get out of an economic slump by having a war, well we've got one so we can't start another.
What the public ned to see is confident action. Stop keeping to a moribund policy that is obviously not working and adapt to the situation. I am sorry but when people are in threat of not being able to pay their bills,affording their mortgage and having to cut back on food, while a footballer has been rumoured to be offered 300,000 a week, something is radically wrong. If football clubs can offer such sums then two things are obvious, they are not paying enough tax or they are living on credit that they will never be able to pay back.
By the way can someone tell me what we are going to do with all the extra nuclear waste that the new stations are going to produce when they come on line. We can't cope with the ordinary waste that we produce. For the cost of one of the new power stations how about supplying every house with solar panels. Cheaper and healthier in the long term.
Though I do criticise Gordon Brown a lot, I must praise his unflinching stance on Robert Mugabe. The situation in Zimbabwe is unforgivable and should be ended, not by us but by the other African nations who should act not for economical reasons but humanitarian ones.
Gordon could ease the pain of the fuel crises by stopping the duty on the vat that we pay for the petrol. He could stop it for the time while petrol is above the pound mark. Ah I hear you say that means that we the tax payer will be susidising petrol companies. Well if you start making it law that imported cars must have bio-fuels only. If cars start to not use petrol then the petrol that would be used to run cars would become a surfiet and consequently cheaper. I realise that this may be fantasy in the short term but how about having some form of integrated thought, in other words joined up government.
There are riots in the streets in Europe due to food shortages, caused by the transport system falling apart due to the increase in petrol;. I hate to remind the students of history the last time there was a food shortage in Europe. If you think that the BNP are not going to take advantage of this failure in government, you are mistaken.
The answer lies in the governments hands. Reduce duty, get the Govenor of the Bank of England to resign. He should have done so after the Northern Rock debacle, and get someone in with radical ideas, after all how worse can it get, I suppose the trouble is in the past its always been the ploy to get out of an economic slump by having a war, well we've got one so we can't start another.
What the public ned to see is confident action. Stop keeping to a moribund policy that is obviously not working and adapt to the situation. I am sorry but when people are in threat of not being able to pay their bills,affording their mortgage and having to cut back on food, while a footballer has been rumoured to be offered 300,000 a week, something is radically wrong. If football clubs can offer such sums then two things are obvious, they are not paying enough tax or they are living on credit that they will never be able to pay back.
By the way can someone tell me what we are going to do with all the extra nuclear waste that the new stations are going to produce when they come on line. We can't cope with the ordinary waste that we produce. For the cost of one of the new power stations how about supplying every house with solar panels. Cheaper and healthier in the long term.
Though I do criticise Gordon Brown a lot, I must praise his unflinching stance on Robert Mugabe. The situation in Zimbabwe is unforgivable and should be ended, not by us but by the other African nations who should act not for economical reasons but humanitarian ones.
Monday, 2 June 2008
The economics of terror.
Now as far as I understand it Gordo wants to increase the holding period of terrorism suspects for a longer period. Why? Is it to prevent terrorism or to find out information. I am all for protection of people, all people civilians or military, but surely holding someone for a greater period of time will not prevent this. I remember the Bobby Sands fiasco, turned into his martyrdom, and how many recruits did the IRA get then. Surely the way to combat the kind of fundamentalist terrorism is to win hearts and minds, not lock people away.
But what kind of terrorism. The inmates of Guantenemo Bay, those who have been incarcerated fro years without trial, did they supply evidence to prevent a terrorist attack. The information they have must actually be well out of date now. By allowing this new law to go through it does nothing for the security of the country, though I think that bringing the troops out would go a long way to stop acts of terrorism on these shores. But it does bring me to a fine point of when is intellegence good. After all the whole point of us going into Iraq in the first place was based on intellegence gathered by the security forces that told of weapons of mass desrtuction, but that proved to be totally untrue. So if we beat someone to a pulp, put them before a military tribunal and try them is the information they give going to be any more relaible than that which the public were given to get us into the war?
Its a lovely diversion though isn't it. After all the economy is collapsing around our ears, food prices are going up, fuel bills are going up, the economy policies of the banks are proving to be more suspect than we could ever imagine, but what do the labour backbenchers complain about the detention of suspected terrorists for longer than 42 days. The whole idea of this being the most important subject in a world of chaos, is spin. We cannot afford to feed our old, we cannot afford to educate our young, but we can afford to fight an unwinable war and have our civil liberties eroded. When midwives are being made redundant in a baby boom,the security services have doubled their staff.
The problem is the hyperreality of the situation. We are so entwined with the idea of our civil liberties being taken over by Islam that we are more than happy to have a continuous war to defeat a strategy thatn any schoolboy historian will tell you is undefeatable. You want to defeat terrorism then persude the ordinary well meaning caring people of islam to ask questions of their elders. Please lets not forget that there are more Christians in Pakistan than Muslims here and if they start a jihad from the way they are being treated then all the large economies that have invested heavily in the third world will fall apart. Communism could never defeat capitalism, capitalism will defeat capitalism because it will eat itself, followed and encouraged by religious fundementalists who will show a better way. Why be poor and unhappy when a better world waits for you without the trappings of a western society. Afghanistan didn't just happen. Taliban didn't just appear one night and take over. It was a systemiatic mind shift by a people who had been betrayed by everything. After all Milton said he would rather be a master in Hell than a servant in heaven.
But what kind of terrorism. The inmates of Guantenemo Bay, those who have been incarcerated fro years without trial, did they supply evidence to prevent a terrorist attack. The information they have must actually be well out of date now. By allowing this new law to go through it does nothing for the security of the country, though I think that bringing the troops out would go a long way to stop acts of terrorism on these shores. But it does bring me to a fine point of when is intellegence good. After all the whole point of us going into Iraq in the first place was based on intellegence gathered by the security forces that told of weapons of mass desrtuction, but that proved to be totally untrue. So if we beat someone to a pulp, put them before a military tribunal and try them is the information they give going to be any more relaible than that which the public were given to get us into the war?
Its a lovely diversion though isn't it. After all the economy is collapsing around our ears, food prices are going up, fuel bills are going up, the economy policies of the banks are proving to be more suspect than we could ever imagine, but what do the labour backbenchers complain about the detention of suspected terrorists for longer than 42 days. The whole idea of this being the most important subject in a world of chaos, is spin. We cannot afford to feed our old, we cannot afford to educate our young, but we can afford to fight an unwinable war and have our civil liberties eroded. When midwives are being made redundant in a baby boom,the security services have doubled their staff.
The problem is the hyperreality of the situation. We are so entwined with the idea of our civil liberties being taken over by Islam that we are more than happy to have a continuous war to defeat a strategy thatn any schoolboy historian will tell you is undefeatable. You want to defeat terrorism then persude the ordinary well meaning caring people of islam to ask questions of their elders. Please lets not forget that there are more Christians in Pakistan than Muslims here and if they start a jihad from the way they are being treated then all the large economies that have invested heavily in the third world will fall apart. Communism could never defeat capitalism, capitalism will defeat capitalism because it will eat itself, followed and encouraged by religious fundementalists who will show a better way. Why be poor and unhappy when a better world waits for you without the trappings of a western society. Afghanistan didn't just happen. Taliban didn't just appear one night and take over. It was a systemiatic mind shift by a people who had been betrayed by everything. After all Milton said he would rather be a master in Hell than a servant in heaven.
Monday, 21 April 2008
Bankers
I find the whole credit crunch crisis a bit of a fiasco. The banks who lent money to people they knew couldn't pay it back if there was a downturn in the economy are now standing waving their hands in the air and with a look of suprise on their faces. Lets get this straight, there was a problem in the American mortgage market, that our banks invested in, so now the British taxpayer has to fork out money so that the banks can get their house in order and not go under. The poor low income workers who have had their tax doubled from 10 to 20 pence are subsidising the six figure salaried bankers whose fault it was in the first place, not because of them making an error of judgement but because of their greed. I see there are quite a few people in Wall Street who have lost their jobs over this but I bet none of them are the top MD's or CEO's. But of course if they leave having thrust the western world into financial chaos they will get a pay off that will be more than most of us earn in a lifetime.
We are constantly being told that we now have to be competetative on the world markets, though of course that doesn't include the railways which are still being subsidised by the taxpayer, or the building of nuclear power plants paid for by the tax payer, or the arms industry; so when the bank says sorry but your small shop has to go under because you can't meet your repayments, or your business is going under because of the interest rate rises we can expect a handout from the government can we? Don't forget that a couple of years ago some of the banks were making a $1billion profit. Where's that gone and why did they want so much more they were risking the whole of the western banking system to get it. They keep saying that tnhey didn't know that it would happen this way. Really that's what they are paid to do, as well as the governments experts.
Its about time that governments stopped looking at encouraging all these millionaires from Eastern Europe to settle here, or American billionaires to buy up football teams, as those kind of people will go where the best deals are anyway, but to start looking at us, the native population. I am tired of being told that I need to pull in my belt again and again, because of the economy, I don't see Manchester United or Chelsea having a wage cut for their players, I don't see the CEO's of the power companies having their wages cut. I know that Gordon Brown said that the MP's had to have a wage rise lower than inflation, but then I wish someone would give me £10,000 for a new kitchen, £6,000 for a new bathroom, plus expenses so I can employ my family to do my office work. What I do see are rising fuel costs both domestic and travel, rising food costs, I see a rise in the cost of actually getting to work by bus, train or car. I also see the government doing nothing about it except by hitting the ordinary man in the street.
Its not just economics its everything. Education may have two ministers but they still can't get enough common sense together to see that it makes more sense to get 10 teachers for the cost of a new superheadmaster, ( oh by the way when the idea was muted the salary was going to be £100,000 now its £200,000, Hows that for inflation?)
How about making the streets safe, by employing more policemen on the beat and paying them a decent wage (If MI5 can double its staff because of the terrorist threat then I think a local police station could get a few more coppers to combat the terrorism that goes on outside my house)
Stop spending money on Trident, (Does it work? Tell me when are you going to find out? And what will happen to the old missiles that are being replaced hardly green is it?) and start spending money on the NHS.
When I was a kid I really was proud of my country being first, the first to discover so many wonderful life changing inventions, things that helped us win the war like radar, micro surgery, Concorde. Now we are first in that we work the longest hours pay the highest for petrol, pay the most for food, prison population, alcoholic abuse; so many things that we are first at, that make me unhappy, though of course there is one thing that we are not first at, literacy, we come second to bottom on that after the USA. The country that got us into the economic mess we are in now. Dont tell me this is good for me, because I remember every prime minister telling me that we are in a strong position but we need to make cuts and pull in our belts for the future. Well the future is now, so don't piss down my back and tell me its raining anymore. Get your act together because what are you going to do when China's economy starts running out of steam and their is a civil war or a revolution. Its history repeating itself, look at France, at Russia, even to the revolution in Germany in the 20's which lead to the rise of the Nazi's. No good asking for a hand out then because you invested in China, because it will be all of us sinking.
Just one thing more, the colleges and universities will be able to charge what they want, some want to charge £7000 a year. Now if the government wants toget 50% of the population in higher education each paying £7000 per year then after three years with fees and living costs they will owe about £35000 or perhaps even more which they will have to pay back,on credit, which some wont be able to do so causing a shortfall in the credit supply causing another credit crisis. Now tell me how are these students who have to pay back these loans going to find the money for a deposit on a house,save for their pension,get their children through school and actually find enough money over for food? Of course they will get jobs because they will be a graduate. So will 50% of the population so the extra money a graduate should get by the mere fact they will have a degree will be devalued in a supply and demand market. Does nobody in the government read history. I realise that it's a diary of other peoples mistakes but look at the wall street crash, where the investors were out stripping the supply. If that happens then we will have meltdown within the education system like the banking system now.
To have the opportunity for education is a good thing, but some people don't want it and those that can't get it are going to be even more alienated than they already are. For some kids an ASBO will be their only qualification. Stop charging for education and putting ridiculous restrictions on funding, the RAE policy gives plenty of researchers lots of money but they can't teach and if anybody has read the most recent figures will know that law suits against colleges and Universities has rocketed over the past year, mainly due to the lack of teaching.
The army discovered that when it stopped having conscription they started to develop a better, more aware and smarter army, actually I am proud to say the best in the world, shame about the equipment, but thats another blog. Education should be the same. Its not about numbers its about quality. Its about investing in the future and lets not treat education like the mortgage market becuase if it goes bust there won't be anybody clever enough to bail us out.
We are constantly being told that we now have to be competetative on the world markets, though of course that doesn't include the railways which are still being subsidised by the taxpayer, or the building of nuclear power plants paid for by the tax payer, or the arms industry; so when the bank says sorry but your small shop has to go under because you can't meet your repayments, or your business is going under because of the interest rate rises we can expect a handout from the government can we? Don't forget that a couple of years ago some of the banks were making a $1billion profit. Where's that gone and why did they want so much more they were risking the whole of the western banking system to get it. They keep saying that tnhey didn't know that it would happen this way. Really that's what they are paid to do, as well as the governments experts.
Its about time that governments stopped looking at encouraging all these millionaires from Eastern Europe to settle here, or American billionaires to buy up football teams, as those kind of people will go where the best deals are anyway, but to start looking at us, the native population. I am tired of being told that I need to pull in my belt again and again, because of the economy, I don't see Manchester United or Chelsea having a wage cut for their players, I don't see the CEO's of the power companies having their wages cut. I know that Gordon Brown said that the MP's had to have a wage rise lower than inflation, but then I wish someone would give me £10,000 for a new kitchen, £6,000 for a new bathroom, plus expenses so I can employ my family to do my office work. What I do see are rising fuel costs both domestic and travel, rising food costs, I see a rise in the cost of actually getting to work by bus, train or car. I also see the government doing nothing about it except by hitting the ordinary man in the street.
Its not just economics its everything. Education may have two ministers but they still can't get enough common sense together to see that it makes more sense to get 10 teachers for the cost of a new superheadmaster, ( oh by the way when the idea was muted the salary was going to be £100,000 now its £200,000, Hows that for inflation?)
How about making the streets safe, by employing more policemen on the beat and paying them a decent wage (If MI5 can double its staff because of the terrorist threat then I think a local police station could get a few more coppers to combat the terrorism that goes on outside my house)
Stop spending money on Trident, (Does it work? Tell me when are you going to find out? And what will happen to the old missiles that are being replaced hardly green is it?) and start spending money on the NHS.
When I was a kid I really was proud of my country being first, the first to discover so many wonderful life changing inventions, things that helped us win the war like radar, micro surgery, Concorde. Now we are first in that we work the longest hours pay the highest for petrol, pay the most for food, prison population, alcoholic abuse; so many things that we are first at, that make me unhappy, though of course there is one thing that we are not first at, literacy, we come second to bottom on that after the USA. The country that got us into the economic mess we are in now. Dont tell me this is good for me, because I remember every prime minister telling me that we are in a strong position but we need to make cuts and pull in our belts for the future. Well the future is now, so don't piss down my back and tell me its raining anymore. Get your act together because what are you going to do when China's economy starts running out of steam and their is a civil war or a revolution. Its history repeating itself, look at France, at Russia, even to the revolution in Germany in the 20's which lead to the rise of the Nazi's. No good asking for a hand out then because you invested in China, because it will be all of us sinking.
Just one thing more, the colleges and universities will be able to charge what they want, some want to charge £7000 a year. Now if the government wants toget 50% of the population in higher education each paying £7000 per year then after three years with fees and living costs they will owe about £35000 or perhaps even more which they will have to pay back,on credit, which some wont be able to do so causing a shortfall in the credit supply causing another credit crisis. Now tell me how are these students who have to pay back these loans going to find the money for a deposit on a house,save for their pension,get their children through school and actually find enough money over for food? Of course they will get jobs because they will be a graduate. So will 50% of the population so the extra money a graduate should get by the mere fact they will have a degree will be devalued in a supply and demand market. Does nobody in the government read history. I realise that it's a diary of other peoples mistakes but look at the wall street crash, where the investors were out stripping the supply. If that happens then we will have meltdown within the education system like the banking system now.
To have the opportunity for education is a good thing, but some people don't want it and those that can't get it are going to be even more alienated than they already are. For some kids an ASBO will be their only qualification. Stop charging for education and putting ridiculous restrictions on funding, the RAE policy gives plenty of researchers lots of money but they can't teach and if anybody has read the most recent figures will know that law suits against colleges and Universities has rocketed over the past year, mainly due to the lack of teaching.
The army discovered that when it stopped having conscription they started to develop a better, more aware and smarter army, actually I am proud to say the best in the world, shame about the equipment, but thats another blog. Education should be the same. Its not about numbers its about quality. Its about investing in the future and lets not treat education like the mortgage market becuase if it goes bust there won't be anybody clever enough to bail us out.
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