Protests: When’s It Time To Go Home
I haven’t really been thinking much about the protests in the City of London. In truth, I think they are rather pointless, as the power of the City and the bonus culture will be broken in a few years. Or as far as they affect the general public they will.
Just read this article on the BBC web site, which talks about when it’s time to go home.
But why do I feel that the city protests are pointless?
The clearing banks are finished for a start, as new technology and clever web sites will increasingly take over their work. As I say often on this web site, I use Zopa to manage my long term money and get just under 6% before tax. The only other thing I need is a simple on-line banking account to manage my cash and standing orders.
In the next few years other ideas will emerge and many of us will not need a clearing bank any more. As my friend David said many years ago, banking will shed jobs with gay abandon. But the City will create new industries and many will need lots of people like those being laid off by the banks.
An interesting insight was a couple years ago, I found a company organising on-line shopping for the cargo ships that wander the world. It is based near the City because it is close to the skills, customers and companies it needed to setup. These sort of ideas will gravitate to the City if we have the right environment and create jobs and income for London. Why do you think Silicon Roundabout is just north of the City. rather than in Manchester, Leeds or Newcastle?
God Isn’t Listening
Apparently, Texas is in the midst of a drought.
According to The Times today, last April Rick Perry, the governor and Presidential candidate, lead a prayer for rain in the state.
And guess what?
It hasn’t rained.
Either God doesn’t exist or he/she doesn’t like the fact that Rick Perry executes a lot of people in his state.
Today’s Times Leaders
They are a classic.
The first details the rows in the Labour Party and how Blairite is now an insult.
The second says that America’s investment in Mubarak’s leadership in Egypt was very misguided.
It finishes by taslking about how various factions and religions in India have destroyed the largest literary festival in Asia at Jaipur.
We need some compassionate and sensible thinking.
Labour Nationalises Local Party Assets
According to an article in The Times today, Labour is bribging all the local party assets under central control.
In Bath, the local party owns a Listed building, which brings in a lot of rent, which is used to fund elections. The Bath Labour party doesn’t seem to be very happy.
But then, this is what socialism is about. If it exists it’s ours.
Cherie Blair Moves Into Private Health Care
According to The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail, Cherie Blair is part of an attempt to setup a chain of private one-stop health clinics called Mee Healthcae. Read about it in the Daily Mail here.
The domain, meehealthcare.com, seems to have been registered, but the website hasn’t been setup yet.
The registrant appears to be Gail Lese, a business partner of Cherie’s mentioned in both articles.
What would Mark Serwotka and Bob Crow think?
Is This What Ed Milliband Needs?
Popbitch has pointed me to this site, which shows Newt Gingrich with various pets.
Perhaps Ed Milliband needs petswithed.com? Or perhaps we don’t?
Cantona For President
According to this article, one of Britain’s favourite Frenchman, wants to stand against Sarkozy to be French President.
The Scottish Independence Referendum
The phone-in on BBC Radio 5 this morning, was about the possible Scottish Independence Referendum, which is being debated by David Cameron’s cabinet today.
I should say, that I don’t care much, whether Scotland is independent from the UK or not. after all, there would be one big advantage to England if Scotland were to be independent.
It would mean that the result of UK General Elections would not be skewed because of the overwhelmingly left-facing vote north of the border. It would also mean that policies for England would not be decided in a Parliament, where many of the members had no electoral connection to England, but still voted on English law. Tam Dalyell posed this as the West Lothian question and summed it up as follows.
For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate … at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on English politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
I agree with this and it is a running sore to many English voters. Interestingly, to sort the West Lothian Question doesn’t need Scottish independence, but just a simple change to UK law, which would say that on matters of English law, only English MPs could vote. But would the Labour Party give up this right?
There might well be other advantages to England and I won’t debate them here, but I think it is in the interest of the whole of the UK, that the problem is settled one way or another before the end of the current UK Parliament.
Some of the biggest problems do not concern either the UK or the Scottish governments.
Suppose you are the CEO of an airline with a service to the London area, that is thinking of serving a second airport in the north of the UK. Obviously, your choice is between Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. But which? Uncertainty about the status of Scotland in the UK doesn’t help your decision. From my experience of the trains between Manchester and Scotland, it would appear that Manchester is getting the business, as opposed to Glasgow or Edinburgh. Note these points too.
- In 2010, Manchester was used by slightly more passengers than Glasgow and Edinburgh combined.
- The Scottish airports are not connected directly to the rail network. Manchester is and is due to get extra connections in the next few years.
- All airports have direct air links to either Gatwick, Heathrow or Stansted.
If Scotland’s status in the UK were to be sorted long-term, it would be a much easier decision.
There are a lot of other business decisions that are suffering from the same uncertaincy.
I actually think that the biggest problem with any Scottish referendum, is that no matter how it is written, it would not give a clear-cut result, that would satisfy everybody.
There could be three possible boxes on the ballot paper for a referendum.
- Complete independence for Scotland.
- More devolution for Scotland.
- Carry on as we are now.
The Scottish Nationalists would be very happy with one and possibly two. But as time progressed, I suspect that if they didn’t get complete independence, they’d come back again and again until they got the result they wanted. The uncertainty would be bad for Scotland and not very good for the UK. So in my view David Cameron is right to insist on an early binding referendum to put the issue to bed, once and for all. It would appear that the Scottish Nationalists want the referendum in 2014, as it’s the seven hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn. I actually think that would be a recipe for a lot of trouble, that no-one wants.
The English would also like to bury the argument and most would be happy if Scotland became independent, as it would mean no Scottish interference in matters purely of interest to the English. Remember too, that the last two Scottish Prime Ministers of the UK, are not held in much affection in England. I think too, that the English would also be happy to go along with a very definite vote for the status quo, providing that the West Lothian Question was settled and there was no chance of another referendum for at least fifteen years or so.
I feel a bit sorry for the Welsh here, as they were a bit short-changed on devolution by Tony Blair. I do have this feeling though, that Wales will do well economically in the next few years, especially if they get the infrastructure a lot better.
Northern Ireland is a totally different matter and I’ve always believed that it should be united with the south. But that will probably not happen in my lifetime.
To return to the Scottish Referendum, would any political party get a result they want?
Scotland is a much more divided country than England, although both have a lot of regional pride. Edinburgh and Glasgow rarely agree and I’ve read reports in the past, about the islands not wanting independence at all, except from the rest of Scotland.
So it will be very difficult for any party to marshall the voters.
In fact, I think that in a three choice referendum, the Scots are more likely to vote strongly for maintaining the status quo.
Blair’s Tax Bill
It would appear that he’s paying his share according to this article in the Daily Mail.
But then he’s only living by the Socialist mantra.
Do as I say, not as I do!
I also wonder what Brown’s tax bill is like?
After all Britain’s most accident prone double-act since Laurel and Hardy got us into this economic mess and made sure that they created enough friends to see themselves right.
Perhaps we need a law that all members and former members of Parliament must publish accounts that the man on the Dalston Omnibus could understand.
Rick Santorum on Poland
I have just found this post on the New York Times, which describes the mess Rick Santorum has got himself into over Poland.
I thought one of the golden rules of American elections, was don’t annoy the Irish, Italian, Polish and Jewish voters.
The Anonymous Widower 