Cameron Gets It Right
David Cameron seems to have got a reasonable result over the EU budget today. Ten countries, including France and Germany have backed him over the size of the budget increase and that is probably the best he could have hoped for!
I think that this might be a bigger victory, than we think, as I think it is something that Blair or Brown couldn’t have done because of their stance as America’s poodle. I think it is terue to say that Mrs. Thatcher wouldn’t have got this result, without creating a lot of acrimony and bad feelings.
But Cameron seems to have axhieved his objectives, by pringing nine other countries round to his views, although I think Chancellor Merkel was thinking on similar lines.
As someone who is pro-Europe on the personal things, let’s hope that this marks the start of Europe working together to sort out its formidable problems of the jobs, poverty, agriculture, finance and fraud.
SAGA Backs the Time Change to Central European Time
SAGA has now backed Rebecca Harris and her Private Members Bill. Apparently 63% of over-50s back moving to Central European Time.
Well here’s one that does!
Reasons To Be Hopeful
This was the headline across the front page of The Times today. They gave it three sub-titles :-
- Growth surprises City
- Advertising soars
- Strongest ewbound since the War
They also talked about how a new shopping centre at One New Change in the City of London, nicknamed the Stealth Bomber is virtually fully let to retailers.
Let’s hope that this is not a false dawn! But visiting Cambridge as I do regularly, I have a feeling that it is not!
Whoever Supplied This Should be Prosecuted
I indicated in an earlier post that the United States was having difficulty in getting enough sodium thiopental to carry out executions. It now appears that a British company has supplied the drug. This is an extract from the BBC’s report.
Writing in the Guardian newspaper, a British civil rights lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, has called for the naming and shaming of the company as it was “making a business out of killing”.
“One question that immediately springs to mind is whether it is criminal for the British corporation to profit from such a killing: while the language is loose, EU Council Regulation 1236/2005 takes a step along this path, making it illegal to trade in certain goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment…’
“When the veil of secrecy is inevitably sundered, this British corporation should be reminded that the medical profession boasts of a Hippocratic oath, not a hypocritical one,” he wrote.
I agree with Clive and will be writing to the company, when it becomes known.
Andy Holmes Dies of Suspected Weil’s Disease
He was just 51 and the cause of his death is normally fairly rare. But Weil’s Disease does claim the animals and birds, when you don’t keep the rats down and the hygiene good
But it is so sad that effectively one of his his major passions, may have led to the cause of his death.
Will Britain Dance In Time to the Scottish Nationalists?
Parliament is discussing going to Central European Time today, so the BBC has a piece about the possible change from Scotland. A professor from Edinburgh University has said that Scots are generally in favour of the change to lighter evenings, but that the SNP has called the change ludicrous.
Let’s hope that every other politician feels that way about their stand.
But I’ve always felt that this very sensible move, which has so many positive energy, business, job and leisure implications will never happen, as it is in effect a vote for something that makes us closer to Europe.
America Has a Drug Problem
We all know that, but this story from Agence France Presse is rather different, as it concerns a shortage of a drug needed for capital punishment by lethal injection.
In the midst of a drug shortage that has already forced postponement of lethal injection executions across the United States, some states say they now have the drug in hand but are refusing to disclose its origin.
The unprecedented situation has been compounded by an inmate scheduled to die Tuesday but who is suing to stop his own execution, arguing that the drug which the state of Arizona intends to use may be counterfeit or unsafe.
Only one pharmaceutical company in the United States, Hospira, currently manufactures the drug, the anesthetic sodium thiopental.
But it is out of stock and will not be able to resume production until the first quarter of 2011, and Hospira’s most recent batch is nearing its 2011 expiration date.
Some states like Texas and Ohio have enough thiopental to carry on with their execution schedules, but others like Kentucky have been forced to put capital punishment on hold.
Can’t they get the message, that someone is trying to tell them that the death penalty is totally wrong. The story would be funny, if it wasn’t so serious.
Pamela Survives Another Week
She has now been in the top three of the judges voting on Strictly Come Dancing for the first four weeks.
And she’s still there, which makes my four pounds safe for another week!
If you think she can’t dance, then look at this video, where she takes off Kate Bush.
My so also remembered that we saw her in Pirates of Penzance with others including George Cole, Peter Noone, Paul Nicholas and Tim Curry.
Nick Clegg on Smoking
I’m not in favour of smoking, but when Nick Clegg discloses that he does on Desert Island Discs, it’s not good. Is it another case of politicians saying do as I say and not as I do?
Austin Mitchell Prepares for AV
I found this piece in The Independent, as I travelled towards Leicester. A snippet in the main article was headlined “A1 Austin takes no chances” and it described Austin Mitchell’s preparations for alternative vote.
In Australia, they call it the donkey vote. Faced with a long list of candidates to be listed in order of preference under the AV system, voters start at the top and work down.
Next year, there will be a referendum on whether to introduce AV to British elections and it was noticeable that two members of Labour’s national executive whose names began with W lost this year, The Labour MP Austin Mitchell is taking no chances. “When the system comes in I will change my name to A1 Austin,” he told MPs this week.
I know Australians, who are very intelligent, but I can understand some of their thicker countrymen voting in that way, just as I can imagine some of my countrymen. Perhaps we should put symbols by each candidate to indicate their party!
We could perhaps use one of Mrs. T’s handbags for the Tories and perhaps two aircraft carriers for NuLabor.
The Anonymous Widower 