Bye! Bye! Russia
I can’t say I’m sorry to see the Russians go home!
What price now that the Greeks vote for no austerity tomorrow? They will be backing on two miracles in a week.
Who Do the Young, Liberals and Women Vote For in Egypt?
The BBC in this report describes the two candidates thus.
Mohammed Mursi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, is up against Ahmed Shafiq, former President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister.
In the UK, it would be the equivalent of choosing between a Catholic Archbishop and Len McCluskey of UNITE or Bob Diamond of Barclays.
We’d certainly be on the streets protesting.
John Major at the Leveson Enquiry
This is an extract from the BBC’s report on John Major appearing at the Leveson Enquiry.
Rupert Murdoch warned John Major to switch policy on Europe or his papers would not support him, the ex-prime minister has told the Leveson Inquiry.
Sir John recalled the exchange from a private meeting in 1997, which he said he had not spoken about before.
Later that year, his Conservative party lost power to Labour, with the Sun backing his rival Tony Blair.
Sir John said he was subjected to some “hurtful” press coverage while he was PM, but was “too sensitive” at times.
In about 1997, I was at a meeting, when John Major gave his view on the world. At that meeting, he said that “The Times, which used to be a newspaper, had accused him of dying his hair.” He then pointed to his grey hair and said. “Would anybody die it this colour?”
A Referendum for the Falklands
This seems to be a good idea, although I don’t think it will come to any agreement acceptable to Argentina.
It does seem though that referenda are all the rage at present. We may have one about EU membership, but I think it would be better if we concentrated on getting all of the countries in Europe sorted first. We could all start with balancing the books.
“The Jubilee was one of the greatest aquatic triumphs of the British people”
This was said by Boris Johnson on American television, when he was promoting his book. There’s a video of it here.
Have we ever had a politician like Boris before?
Boris hints that he could be President of the United States as he was born in New York.
I suspect, he’d make a better fist of it, than some of second-raters, who’ve held the job in my lifetime.
If You Think the Eurozone is the Only Place with Financial Problems, Look at California
This article on the BBC web site, discusses the problems of California. Theirs may not be as large sums, but because of the way their political system works cutting the state’s $16billion deficit is going to be very difficult, due to American’s complete aversion to the raising of taxes.
I wonder how many other states are in a similar states.
FiReControl Was Abysmal Failure
FiReControl was one of the Blair government’s flagship projects, which had the aim of sorting out the 999 services for the fire brigades across England. According to this report from the the National Audit Office, it wasn’t a success. Here’s the first paragaph.
The project to replace the 46 Fire and Rescue Services’ local control rooms across England with nine purpose-built regional control centres linked by a new IT system has been a comprehensive failure. The DCLG acted to cut its losses by terminating the contract in December 2010 but at least £469 million will have been wasted.
Lord Prescott defended the system in the media last week and felt that others were to blame.
Now a letter from Matt Wrack of the Fire Brigades Union is published in The Times with the title of this post as a title, which drops Prescott in the doo-dah. If the FBU won’t support you, something must be wrong.
I hope he’s got his wet suit on!
Prescott is one of those politicians, who in my view, are not fit to run a whelk stall.
He should do everybody a favour and retire from public life. Preferably to a cottage by Spurn Head.
Baroness Warsi Puts the Boot In!
Baroness Warsi is reported on the BBC as condemning in the strongest terms the child abuse of white girls by a minority of Pakistani men. I am very much behind her views, as child abuse is child abuse no matter who does it. It can never be excused under any circumstances.
I would however question the views of some that should know better, who have done little to follow up complaints or condemn the proven abuse.
Let’s hope too, that Baroness Warsi and others, like Jack Straw and Trevor Phillips, keep the pressure up, as only by a concerted and forceful campaign will we stamp this vile practice out for good.
The Anonymous Widower 