The Telegraph Attacks Two Targets In One Article
Toby Young in Her Majesty’s Daily Telegraph has attacked both Lance Armstrong and Alistair Campbell in this article.
It is getting that Lance Armstrong is becoming a non-laurel wreath to hang around anybody you don’t like’s neck.
The Engineers Get To Grips With Food
This report from the BBC, would seem to suggest that the Institute of Mechanical Engineers are venturing into areas that are none of their business. This is two key paragraphs.
The report found that between 30% and 50% of the four billion tonnes of food produced around the world each year went to waste.
It suggested that half the food bought in Europe and the US was thrown away.
I don’t think it is a surprising set of findings, but what are governments doing about it. Nothing! Which is a total scandal.
Perhaps, it’s about time we had more engineers at all levels in Government, all over the world. Waste is anathema to every engineer I’ve ever met!
I wonder if there has ever been a President or Prime Minister anywhere, who has had an engineering qualification? Even an O Level or equivalent in Technical Drawing would be rare. The nearest I can think of is Jimmy Carter, who was deeply involved in the clearing up of this nuclear incident in Canada. After his presidency he has shown himself to be a very practical man.
Hoist By His Own Petard
I’m reminded of one of my father’s favourite phrases by this story about the leader of the English Defence League.
He can’t really complain about his punishment, as I thought the EDL wanted to keep unwanted immigrants out of the country. So what were the Americans doing? Just that, when he tried to get there using someone else’s passport.
Cambridge Busway Troubles
The Cambridge Busway may be running fairly well now, but it still seems to cause trouble for politicians, as this report shows.
At least though the Edinburgh Tram has come along to give the busway company in the book of bad projects.
Does A Country, Company Or Organisation Need A Woman At The Top?
There has been a lot of news today about the release under the thirty-year-rule of secret documents concerning Margaret Thatcher and various subjects like the Falklands War, Jimmy Savile and her son, Mark.
Nothing is particularly contentious, except perhaps the fact that someone misjudged what was happening in Argentina and gave Mrs. Thatcher bad information. But then the Secret Intelligence Service, didn’t give Tony Blair the best information either.
On the other hand, when dealing with Mark lost in the desert, she seems to have acted to make sure that the state didn’t pay for her son’s folly.
If we go through the history of the United Kingdom, you’ll find that at various dark hours, women have been to the fore. You could start a list with Boudicca, Elizabeth the First, Victoria and Margaret Thatcher. You could argue that our current Queen has been a safe pair of hands for most of her life. She was also part of that vast army of women, who stepped in to fill the gaps in the factories, in transport and as support staff during the Second World War. Hitler didn’t mobilise the German women and he of course lost. Some historians say the mobilisation of women in the UK, was a major factor.
I would argue that you don’t need to have a woman at the top,but once you have, it changes a lot of the culture, even if it’s just other talented women believe they can get there. And competition is always healthy, as it promotes the best!
Look at Margaret Thatcher’s effect on British politics. Before her stint as Prime Minister, there were few women at the top in British politics and there have been a lot more since she resigned.
Look at the basket cases of the Eurozone! How many of them have had a woman Prime Minister or President. Only Ireland and that is the one country in trouble, that is making progress towards sorting its finances.
Savile And Margaret Thatcher
The recently released papers show lots of details of meetings between Jimmy Savile and Margaret Thatcher. The details are here on the BBC.
It would appear that Margaret Thatcher did nothing untoward. In fact some of things that were suggested by Savile, were being thought of by the government anyway.
So there doesn’t seem to be much guilt by association here!
Were The Pigs Telling Porkies?
In the case of Plebgate, it certainly seems that some are being economical with the truth, just as the police were after Hillsborough.
We will probably never learn the truth about this. I just suspect that both parties might have been tired after a hard day and something said out of turn by one side just escalated.
I’m lucky in that I’ve never had a confrontation with the police and have only been threatened with arrest once. That was incidentally, when I was about eighteen and I was hitching home with a bag with my clothes in it. I was having bad luck with lifts and was walking through Elstree about two in the morning. A beat officer wanted to check my bag and initially I said no. Only when I was threatened with arrest did he get a look at the dirty washing, I was taking home to my mother.
How Can Governments Be So Stupid?
This story of how the French government has forced Gerard Depardieu to become a tax exile has been repeated through the years in many countries and it always ends up with less money being collected, the brightest and the best leaving and job losses. Usually too, you find out later that those politicians behind it, have made provisions to hide their income.
Every country needs to find ways of keeping all of their best people at home. But of course only by using totally fair and humane methods.
So how can they do this?
Obviously low personal taxes do help. And I don’t just mean income taxes, but capital gains ones as well. After all, many people who create one fortune, have a record of going on to create another, which means further employment and tax revenues from all places. But then there are people who don’t believe that if you lower taxes you raise more money! You may not, but if you frame the rules right and cut down on tax avoidance, you should get an increase.
Quality of life is also important. I live in London and I have a very good quality of life. I live fairly cheaply and get all my healthcare free. I even get all of my local public transport free. Obviously, others have other priorities, but as in France, most people can find a good lifestyle to suit their pocket.
So I think, that governments should probably concentrate on getting the basics of life right for its inhabitants. That means a good basic services, like education, police, fire and refuse collection and a health service that works for all.
Governments must also create opportunities for all levels. At the bottom, they put all sorts of administrative barriers in the way of the unemployed in getting well-paid work. If say I wanted to employ an eighteen-year-old to help me sort out this house, the barriers would be immense. So consequently, when I do, it’ll probably be a friend’s son and cash-in-hand. At the top level, governments always give out contracts to their friends. How many computer contracts have been let to companies, who’ve failed before?
Napoleon once said that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers. He was wrong in that, we’re probably a nation of entrepreneurs. We all seem to want to be our own boss. And what’s wrong with that? Nothing in the eye of most of us, but to some politicians it’s anathema.
I don’t believe the French are any different, as probably are the much-maligned Pakistanis and Somalis.
So governments should just create an environment that makes us all want to stay here and create employment, which hopefully pays enough taxes to keep the process continuing.
France has done everyone a favour, by conducting an experiment that belongs to the past. It failed then and it will fail now.
Speaking English
Ed Milliband is reported as going to be making a speech saying that every Briton should speak English. It’s reported here in the Guardian
I think Milliband is being rather hypocritical. I assume, that when his parents arrived in the UK, their English skills were not a hundred percent.
Certainly, when my ancestors arrived in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, I suspect they’d have had difficulty taking to each other. Just as I do now, talking to some with English, Scottish and Northern Irish regional accents.
I think the episode shows that Milliband will pull any cheap trick to get votes.
Berlusconi’s New Girlfriend
Silvio Berlusconi has apparently got a new girlfriend according to this article in the Daily Telegraph and quite a few others.
The man’s rather a joke and let’s hope the Italian people see sense and keep him away from office. But they do seem to keep electing him!
The Anonymous Widower 