Are Politicians Stupid?
This report on the BBC web site, shows how the three major party leaders were photographed with a special World Cup promotion edition of The Sun.
The Sun is noted for various things, but faithful support for politicians isn’t probably one of them.
So why did the npoliticians ever let the photos be published?
Clegg and Cameron’s supporters didn’t seem to mind too much, but Labour Party supporters and especially those from Liverpool, are giving Milliband a hard time.
BBC Breakfast’s Pointless Move To Manchester
It may be a day of a minor political tremor, but today is illustrating how pointless it was to move BBC Breakfast and probably many other programs to Manchester.
All of the major politicians are of course in Westminster, so Bill Turnbull is in London with Louise Minchin sitting almost by herself in the North, with a few lightweight guests. It is showing, it is a bad recipe for a good programme.
The sooner the BBC does the right thing and moves BBC Breakfast back to London the better.
The Consequences Of A Yes Vote For Scottish Independence
I don’t care one way or another, if Scotland votes for independence or not, as I don’t think it would affect me much at all, if the decision was made for all time. Nothing would be worse than continuous referenda every two years or so.
But I’ve just read an article in Modern Railways, by their respected columnist; Alan Williams, in which he details some of the problems we might see in the event of Scotland voting for independence.
He suggests that after Sottish Independence, England and Wales might decide to adopt Central European Time, as most of the opposition is in Scotland. So if Scotland was to stay on the current time, we’d have the problem of running connected businesses like trains and power networks. I know we do it successfully with the French, but we’ve not changed our time relationship with the French for some decades.
Now this is just one of several problems he flags up with the railway industry.
How many other problems will arise in splitting other industries and utilities?
It’s not my set of problems, but it would be a rich vein for critics and comedians.
May Puts The Boot In
One of the lead stories on the BBC is about Theresa May’s speech to the Police Federation. This is the first paragraph.
Theresa May has urged the Police Federation of England and Wales to reform, or she will enforce change.
But the extraordinary thing about the report in The Times, is not the report itself, but the number of comments entered by readers.
As these comments do not seem to favour one side or another, surely the large number, indicates that many Times readers are very interested in what happens to the Police Federation.
Rats And Sinking Ships Come To Mind
This story on the BBC today, that the Labour party is cutting its links with the Co-op Bank made me think of the headline of this post.
On the other hand, perhaps the owners of the other 70% of the bank, that the Co-operative Group doesn’t own, aren’t those who wear red underwear?
On the other hsand moving to a bank controlled by the Trade Unions, might not bode well for those who want the Labour party to think pragmatically and outside the box.
Should Scottish Islands Be Given More Independence?
The BBC this morning is running a report about more independence from Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has promised to deliver greater powers for the Northern and Western Isles.
The Orkney and Shetland MP said government from Edinburgh had been “just as bad and just as dangerous” for the islands “as it is from London.”
He hopes to deliver “genuine and long lasting reform,” and said an agreement should be in place by midsummer.
Why not?
It could be argued that a greater degree of independence hasn’t done the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands any harm!
But if we look at giving this independence to any area of the UK, giving them control of their strengths and natural resources and such things as infrastructure, education and planning could only be positive.
I probably know most about infrastructure and especially railways than anything else and if we look at Scotland and London, where transport policy has been partially devolved, we’ll see a lot more rail projects than say in the North East or South West, so I’ll look at one example.
If East Anglia had control of its transport, they would have probably dualled the A47, A11 and A140 by now and would be seriously thinking about improving the London to Norwich and the Peterborough to Ipswich rail lines. The latter is probably needed to be electrified, to enable Felixstowe to compete with the London Gateway.
This type of local control could only be good for an area.
But as I said in this article on Mayors, central government doesn’t like to give up power.
Mayors Are The Future
This is the theme of an interesting article in The Spectator entitled Governments have failed – mayors are the future. It is a must read.
As a Londoner, I always argue, that London’s transport system and especially the Underground, Overground and buses are so good, because they are controlled and often designed by people who answer to the people, business and visitors to London.
I can remember, when I left London in the 1960s and started to use Liverpool buses a lot, how I found the plastic covered seats strange, compared to the cloth ones on the RT buses in London.
Even in those days, London did its own thing, because that is what London Transport, the controlling Greater London Council and electorate wanted. Ken and Boris have raised this local control to a new level. And it’s not just these two, but the next London mayor, whoever he or she is and which party they belong to, will raise the standard higher.
This paragraph is very much to the point.
Londoners (there are more of them than Scots and Welsh put together) can argue that Boris has made more of an impact on their lives than David Cameron. And this is with the Mayor of London having fewer powers than most mayors. He is one of many from around the world — Tony Tan in Singapore, Yury Luzhkov of Moscow and Wolfgang Schuster in Stuttgart — who argue that the city is the optimum government unit.
So when voters outside of London complain that London gets too big a slice of the cake, is the problem not London, but their second-rate politicians, who fight local squabbles, rather than do the best for their electorate?
You also have the problem that central government doesn’t like giving power to elected mayors in cities, as it reduces their own power.
But surely, if say Leeds wants a tram system, then that should be a decision for the people, businesses and local politicians of that city.
Sense On Farage Versus Clegg
I didn’t watch the debate last night, as I was watching the football and trying to make sense of my tiger photos.
This morning, I’ve read the report in The Times and especially the comments from readers. The latter are probably summed up by this one.
Good strategy of Tories and Labour to keep out of this playground spat.
Farage looks like (is) a man offering simple solutions to complex problems, which is appealing in a protest vote like the Euro elections, but he has nothing to say about actually running the country as potential PM, so will not get far in a GE when people really are paying attention and are worried about jobs, health, education, etc.
Clegg used it as an attempt (failed) to look statesman-like, but few have his appetite for more Europe, and even he didn’t seem convinced by his own arguments. He is a man whose time in the limelight has been and gone. Not many people will remember his name in a decade.
So it might well be that most people actually saw Farage versus Clegg as entertainment or perhaps a dangerous freak show.
Farage Is A Putin Admirer
According to this story in The Independent, Nigel Farage is an admirer of President Putin. Here’s the first paragraph.
Nigel Farage has named Vladimir Putin as the world leader he most admires. He praised the Russian president’s skills as an “operator”, citing his “brilliant” handling of the civil war in Syria.
I can hear the loud noise as many of those who died years ago, who felt that Stalin was as dangerous as Hitler, are spinning in their graves in unison. My father, who was very much against dictators of all political persuasions, is calling me through the genes.
The Invisible Immigrants
There is a lot of debate about immigration, but an incident last night got me thinking.
I was waiting to go in to see a performance of the Grand Hotel Budapest last night in the Barbican, when I got chatting to a lady sitting next to me.
She was speaking immaculate English, but I got the impression that she wasn’t from London. So I asked where she was from and was rather surprised she came from Austria.
A few weeks ago, I got talking to a well-dressed black guy on a train, who again spoke perfect English, but was surprised to find that he had been born and brought up in Dusseldorf in Germany. He was a temporary visitor and was going home for the weekend, but you wouldn’t have said immigrant immediately, although you might have thought he was a child of immigrants.
I could quote lots of examples over the years, but these days spotting immigrants is not always easy, as many do not follow the supposed stereotype.
Many immigrants like my American fitness trainer or my Australian physio, would not be picked out as immigrants say on the bus or train.
I do wonder how this all effects our views on immigration.
I also wonder, if Britons don’t go and work in say Germany or Sweden, as much as their natives might come here, because our language skills are so atrocious.
The Anonymous Widower 