Putin Is The New Tsar
In the iconic film, Dr. Zhivago, set around the time of the Russian Revolution, the question is asked if Lenin is the new Tsar.
But this story on the BBC’s web site really says that Putin might be behaving like a Tsar and is having a palace built on the Black Sea coast.There will be a full report on Newsnight tonight.
The Election That Wasn’t
Has there ever been an election, that was so low key? I haven’t seen one window sticker or been canvassed. If it wasn’t for the coverage on television and in the papers, you would have thought there was no elections at all. I did see Boris once, but he wasn’t actually doing anything, except being nice to everybody.
The only result that says anything, has been turn-out of 32 %, that has been the worst for a decade.
I did vote, but the polling station was like a morgue. I saw two other voters and the one of those had got lost as he tried to find the room, where the vote was taking place.
In some ways the election that matters for London, other than the Mayor, takes place at the weekend in France. Turbulence and political uncertaincy there, will certainly affect London, but until we see the result of the Sarkozy-Hollande run-off, we won’t know how.
A Fiesty Debate In Paris
It would appear that it was a feisty debate in Paris between President Sarkozy and his challenger, Francois Hollande. But no one got in a knock out blow.
Now there’s an idea!
Perhaps the two of them, should meet in the boxing ring!
It would be a world-wide TV hit!
What’s Going on in Scottish Football?
At the moment, I’m listening to the last match in the Glasgow Premier League at Celtic Park. It is usually on one of the main Sky channels, but today it is on Sky Sports 4. Are those of us who get our Sky through BT Vision being censored? Or do they expect it will be too red-blooded for English tastes? Especially, as from what I can gather from the commentary, the Celtic crowd have been giving the Rangers fans a warm and very bigoted welcome. I think that if say some of the banners unfurled by the home fans, appeared at say an Ipswich against Norwich fixture, they would certainly be confiscated.
All of this is a minor battle compared to what happens in the next few weeks. Rangers will probably loose a lot of their best players and the transfer embargo they are under will mean they won’t be able to sign any more.
What puzzles me about Rangers, is that the Inland Revenue didn’t fully investigate the non-payment of tax by the club a couple of years earlier? After all, if this forces the club into liquidation, then it will be the English at fault. Could it be, that Prudence didn’t want it to happen under his watch?
As a taxpayer, I have a right to know, about all the tax and contract mandering that happened in Scotland in the last days of the worst government we’ve had since Lord North.
The Mayor Calls in the Supersewer
I know it’s election time and there are votes to be won, but I’m pleased that Boris has called in Thames Water proposal for a super sewer under the Thames. As I said in a previous post.
Although I should say, that as someone who has spent a lot of time around project management and managers, I will say that what gets built in the end, will be quite unlike what was originally proposed. That’s what good project management is about. It makes a project better, cheaper and less disruptive.
Let’s hope the engineers prove me right. Unfortunately, some of the alternatives, like stopping householders from creating hard-staandings in their front garden, are sometimes more unpopular than the super sewer.
Is The American Political System Too Complicated?
This article made me think. Here’s a taster.
Can a democratic system function efficiently in an advanced economy in our modern, globalized world? A system based, say, on a couple of 18th century documents updated occasionally by nine people in black robes and a two-chambered legislature that must devote at least as much time to the raising of funds to re-elect itself? I think it can—eventually—but not everyone agrees.
There’s a lot more of the same.
Voting for the Bus
I was at the Angel yesterday afternoon, waiting for a 38 or 56 to take me home, when a New Bus for London passed the other way going towards Victoria.
The guy standing next to me, asked if I’d ridden the bus and I said several times. We then both agreed that we liked them and I said that as an engineer and a designer, it had a lot of good ideas that would find their way into new buses, making them all better.
He then made the statement, that although he was a lifelong Labour voter, he would be voting for the one candidate, who won’t be scrapping the bus; Boris.
Is this the first time that the man on the Dalston omnibus, has been swayed in his voting preference, by that bus?
The French Try Every Way to Leave the Country
The French seem to have panicked about the prospect of a new very left-wing government, as this article shows.
It’s Not All Depressing News!
Clicking through the BBC News website this morning is particularly depressing.
We have the story of the all-Labour Newham Council trying to offload some of their residents who need houses on Stoke-on-Trent. That would be an interesting commute. Governments for too long, have ignored the problem of housing in the South-East and London in particular. Only yesterday, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London was asking for more funds to create more school places in the capital.
You can understand, why politicians on the far-right have been calling for an immigration clampdown. But being from two immigrant lines myself , I can’t complain can I?
We have an imbalance in the number of houses in the UK and the number of people we have here. The main solution is to build more houses, which the government appears to be doing. But also we should ensure that the houses we have are fully occupied. It could be said, that I’m greedy living in a three-bedroomed house by myself!
And then we have the story about how The Netherlands, which many think is one of the more stable of the Eurozone countries is in trouble.
I could find equally depressing stories, such as how Clare Squires died in the London Marathon.
But in some ways that story has a remarkably heart-warming ending as many are contributing to her cause; The Samaritans. The Reverend Chad Varah would have approved.
So perhaps the immense wealth of human spirit will win out! If you want to contribute to Claire go here.
Is It Hire a Frog Week?
I think that the result of the French Presidential Election and the subsequent uncertainy may mean that a lot of high-grade people working in France decide to hop-on the Eurostar and get a job in England.
Personally, I am pleased I no longer own the house in Antibes, as I suspect if some of the candidates win on May 6th, I’d have a lot more taxes to pay.
I checked with my stockbroker this morning, and he said that French bonds are at least holding up, but that is not what can be said for Spanish ones.
The Anonymous Widower 