Thursday 31 May 2012

Not a good idea

Yesterday @ Leveson, see I am hooked, Dr Vince Cable & Mr Ken Clarke were present and I was impressed with some of the thinking by Ken Clarke, is this experience or just good sense?

However, I heard an alarming statement by Vince Cable saying that after his experience as a minister he now wants to reverse the decision of twelve years ago and put politicians back in charge of the Bank of England.

Noooooo.

It's all very well saying that we have power over democratically elected people it still takes five years, have you any idea how much damage democratically elected people can do over five years?

Wednesday 30 May 2012

Why the secrecy?

Two weeks ago, there was a house fire in Derbyshire, which was more shocking than usual because 5 children [at the time - one more since] had died.

The following day as news was getting out, two people were arrested on suspicion of deliberately causing the fire, they were not the parents. The police at the time stressed that this was not the end of the case and more facts were required. A plea to the public was made.

Not unusual as it can take time to sift through evidence.

However, there has now been another arrest and two completely different people have been arrested. This time it's the parents!

Once again the police stress that this does no conclude the investigation. Well what gives?

Who were the first couple?

Where are they now?

How are they connected?

What's going on here? Where have all our investigative journalists gone?

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Tony Blair @ Leveson

One of the most professional performances I have ever seen.

So far I have considered Lord Justice Leveson to be the right man for the job, because of his professionalism, his objectivity, his realisation of the remit given to him, his patience and control. However, it looked remarkably like he was in league with Tony Blair as the two just continuously agreed with each other through the day.

The former prime minister confessed that he had decided to "manage... not confront" the power of the press. In other words, he'd decided to form a relationship with the media which he described as "unhealthy" - a word he said he preferred to "cosy". He knows the questions which will lie ahead, and so do we, but then we also know - or, at least, can predict - many of the answers.

We could have already guessed the rest, there is very little he can deny, what's important [to him - Tony Blair] is how he answers them.

I have not changed my opinion of Lord Leveson and the challenge he has in front of him, but they made it far too easy for the ex Prime Minister with a golden opportunity that will not be repeated...

Monday 28 May 2012

Syria

The UN has now unanimously agreed that the official Syrian government has gone bad.

It's taken a year.

Can we learn from this? No.

You & I know from day one when the you tube videos starting to appear it was a situation that was connected to what has been labelled the "Arab Spring".

Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Syria.

What is the main difference between these peoples, it was obvious from the start that the Syrian Regime was not as soft as the others.

One of the startling statements for me was by the Foreign Secretary last year when he said that going into Syria aggressively was not an option as they had a strong army. This was the response to public statements in forums like the BBC's Question Time program where people repeatedly said "Why did we go into Iraq?" and "Why did we go into Libya?" and "Why are we not going into Syria?"

Well now with the UN in agreement, it would appear that [along with other counties] we will be going in...

p.s I've got my popcorn ready for the Blair-Leveson debate ;)

Friday 25 May 2012

The Leveson Enquiry

I have become engrossed in the Leveson enquiry. On my first day Mr Robert Jay questions Mr Fred Michel and after a few hours Fred Michel is practically agreeing with everything that Robert Jay is saying.

However, on the second day after hours of question between Robert Jay & Adam Smith, Adam Smith is 'NOT' agreeing with everything that Robert Jay is saying, in fact, it gets to the point where Adam Smith is nearly disagreeing with everything that Robert Jay says.

Given that Robert Jay is a professional, it has become clear that Fred Michel & Adam Smith have been coached by two completely different people.

That might be a cynical view on my part but when we get right down to the detail that the Leveson enquiry is doing, then all it comes down to is the English language and how people use it.

I am also not saying that holding enquiries like this is a waste of time, but it does give some people a wonderful platform to get 'their' message across.

I don't believe that Lord Justice Leveson will be able to publish a report at the end of this enquiry that will improve the current situation.

Thursday 24 May 2012

The Euro

For the last twelve months there has been a crisis [financial] in the Euro zone, a group of seventeen countries that have the same currency.

There has been countless speculation as to how this came about, what is happening and what should be done in the future.

The Euro began in 1999 [with only six countries] and back then some people said that unless there was political union it would not succeed. Now there is seventeen and not only do they have absolutely no political or financial similarity, it has become clear that getting some of these countries in can only be described as a set of dodgy deals!

It has become clear that some people wanted a single currency and did not care about the consequences, well it has come back to bite them.

I'll only say this once, no country should be given a bail out if it fails.

It is exactly the same view that I have over banks. The biggest mistake we made recently was to prop up Northern Rock, it should have failed just like Lehman. The recent sale shows that a few at the top have made a fortune yet again from the man in the street.

Back to the Euro, they say that if Greece leaves [guaranteed in my opinion] it would be a crisis, well two points, we already have a crisis and the people who would loose are the bankers. Why are we worried about them?

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Iran - Israel [alphabetical]

I make the specification in the title so as to try and stay neutral, let's see if I'm successful.

I've been thinking about this for a year now, ever since it was made public that Israel was thinking of attacking Iran. Where do we stand on this?

See, already I've taken sides. I'm from the West and feel I should be on the side of Israel, but in this case they are the aggressor and while the West has aggressed many times in the past, I haven't been around to consider my responsibility. Now I am, so it's decision time.

If Israel go in guns blazing, do I support them. Well our Government is talking about this very subject this week, and in fact are taking legal advice on whether our armed forces can take back in certain aspects. As an example the Navy patrolling the straits of Hormuz, can be seen as aggressive.

So is this situation on automatic?

Will Britain go in automatically?

Would the conflict affect us directly?

How long before we find the answers to these questions and will they arrive too late...