POLITICS CORNER

[PanBiker]

Negative politics seems to be the order of the day. It was noted yesterday that Ken Hartley who read the order of wreath laying for the service of remembrance made a point of naming which political parties were not laying wreaths instead of just calling the ones that were. It's mischief making if you want to be petty, that aside it breaks protocol and is totally uncalled for in the circumstance.

[plaques]

So Jeremy Corbyn has been pilloried for not bowing his head deep enough. I always believe its what going on inside the head rather than its position in space. Its far better to be thoughtful about the event than to follow a choreographed ritual whose purpose seems to be to impress the viewers and to get you to the bun fight as a finale. On a personal level. have never attended an official remembrance service but have visited all the memorials in the Burnley - Pendle area. By comparison the work done by Thomo , PanBiker and many others is of a different order. They are the unsung workers who remind us, year on year, of the sacrifices that have been made in these conflicts.

[Thomo]

Many thanks for that Plaques, we didn't do it for the glory, just because it needed to be done. I was sad not to have been able to attend yesterday and lay a wreath on behalf of the Armed and territorial forces, the Merchant and Civilian services. I became ill after the re dedication of the Memorial Gardens in September and am being treated for amongst other things depression and stress. It was just as well that I stayed here, for at 3.00 pm I blacked out in the hallway and fell heavily against the bedroom wardrobe corner. this was followed by a series of bad panic attacks and I am waiting to see my GP. Again, thank you.

[PanBiker]

I echo your opening sentence Thomo and I noticed that you were conspicuous by your absence yesterday. It was very well attended and apart from the break in protocol noted above went off very well. Weather was actually better than forecast. Sounds like you have been through the mill a bit, take care and get well soon.

[Wendyf]

Sorry to hear that you aren't well Peter, take care.

[Stanley]

I talked to my informants about war service when I was doing the LTP. I particularly remember one Great War veteran who told me that he didn't go to the ceremonies either. He objected to the phrase "they gave their lives". His opinion was that they had their lives stolen in particularly horrible ways and all for nothing. I can see what he means and often wonder about the motivations behind the pomp. This is strengthened when I read Ian's post above. I don't go to the ceremonies either, I'd rather think about my granddad Challenger and his mates quietly at home and not just on November 11th.
Anyone who uses remembrance for political motives is not only suspect but has lost sight of what actually happened. Just think, what would the reaction of those who were killed be? In Oz relatives of the dead are encouraged to walk with the vets in the parade, Janet often does it for the memory of her great grandfather....

[Tizer]

Thomo, I hope your GP can sort out your medical troubles. Back in the 1990s I had a bout of very nasty influenza and was left with something very similar to panic attacks when I would become very weak, in a cold sweat and feeling like life was ebbing away. The attacks gradually went away and the medics concluded that the cause was virus entering my nervous system.

[Stanley]

Sounds nasty, I think I'll pass.....
I see the Tories have quietly dropped their 'improvements' to Sunday opening. I agree with the unions, the effect would have been to lower the wages of those who have to work on Sundays. Even their own back benchers weren't convinced. Important to note what the real reason was, they could see the possibility of losing the vote. This doesn't fit in with Cameron's world view as he has convinced himself that they are invincible and can do whatever they want. The opposition parties should take note, they have more power than they imagine and should get their act together.
See THIS BBC report of the elections in Burma. The results are slow to come out but it begins to look as though the NLD have won an overall majority. Good, they deserve it.

[PanBiker]

The Myanmar military have written a clause in the constitution to ensure that Aung San Suu Kyi cannot become president. Apparently she has British sons which renders her ineligible for the post? She was interviewed on one of the news programs last night and she said they could work around that with providing a figurehead president from the party who would support her policies. I wish her well, she has earned it.

[Tizer]

Myanmar's constitution guarantees the military 25% of seats.

[Stanley]

It's encouraging that the military have realised that they can't carry on holding power by force and are making conciliatory noises. So far so good. It will be interesting to see how the talks on reconciliation proceed....
Cameron is shouting with glee about the latest fall in unemployment but the elephant in the room is still the fact that the average wages and conditions of work are miserable. Far too few people are on a genuine living wage. The steady rise in domestic debt is the best measure of how these families are surviving.
Note that every time compensation for reduced benefits is talked about the worst off, those without work, are completely ignored. Raising tax allowances and the mythical 'living wage' are no use to these unfortunate people who don't pay tax and have no wage...
The economy is not doing anywhere near as well as the spin doctors would have us believe. Ossie's Financial Statement is going to be bleak once you have dug down past the rhetoric. Austerity is not working!

[Tizer]

I heard a Sainsbury's executive boasting on the radio that they pay £7.53 an hour. By my rough calculation the Sainsbury's CEO is paid about £360 an hour and that's his salary so presumably there will be bonuses on top of that.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the current state of the NHS and there bed availability before the worst of the winter starts. I heard Jeremy Hunt saying that there was no cause for concern because extra money was being put in bolstered by the 'strong economy'. Really? If the economy is so strong, why is the screw of austerity being tightened harder day in day out? Stay healthy seems to be the only answer.
See THIS report of Tory minister Tracey Crouch offering advice to the 3 million families who are in line for losing out on tax credits. She says they must do without some things like pay-TV services..... She has been attacked for being 'out of touch' but it's much worse than that. This is a glimpse of the hard heart of Tory thinking that runs like a black thread through current policies. The working poor are seen as disposable and the non-workers as a liability. If you are in poverty at the moment there is only one long term prospect, complete destitution. What a commentary on today's world and it gives weight to the point made by Tiz...
Breaking news on the BBC channel that the US have launched a drone strike aimed specifically at 'Jihadi John'. He deserves all he gets if the allegations are true but where is the process in this? Is this justice or assassination?
Later.... News this morning that the moves to cut back in work benefits for migrants on the grounds that they haven't a work history is going to have a useful side effect for Ossie. In order to target the migrants the regulations will also hit young people just starting work on very low wages. Great.... As if things weren't bad enough for young people staring their careers....

[Tizer]

The BBC have acquired a copy of an internal email message from Somerset County Council announcing a freeze on spending. It doesn't seem to reflect Ossie's claims of the UK economy booming. The BBC report says: "An immediate spending freeze has been imposed on all non-essential spending at Somerset County Council until April. The BBC has been shown a staff email from chief executive Pat Flaherty about the freeze due to a £7m shortfall. It read: "We aren't allowed to operate with massive overspends and unless we turn a corner on spending we risk ending the year £7 million overspent." The temporary budget freeze affects non-statutory services such as libraries and roads maintenance. Somerset County Council is the second authority in the country to impose the ban, as authorities continue to lobby against government spending cuts. Mr Flaherty added the move also affected recruitment for vacancies unless absolutely necessary and "infrastructure would only be maintained to a safe and statutory minimum level".

[Stanley]

Tiz, did you see THIS brilliant article by George Monbiot in the Guardian three days ago? Cameron's intervention was way beyond the scale of the 'don't pay for TV' comment. As Monbiot says he must be completely ignorant as to what is actually happening and he either took no advice from his staff or got really bad feed-back from them. The letter reveals him as totally ignorant, he is a man who believes his own spin to the exclusion of the real world.
I watched Cameron making his statement about the drone attack on Jihadi John. He had his best authoritative spin mode in operation. This man has no experience of tactics or actual warfare and as we know habitually over-rides warnings from his professional military and tries to give the impression that it was a 'joint action' with the US. Really? Did Obama ask permission to assassinate a British National? I hate ISIS and all it stands for but have deep misgivings about the way they are being handled. To claim as Cameron did that this was a blow straight to the heart of IS is ridiculous, very similar to the jubilation when one pickup with a machine gun on the bed is knocked out at enormous cost. Someone somewhere is laughing their socks off. All the participants know that there are only two alternatives, negotiation or all out war with troops on the ground. In the end it will be negotiation that has the best effect. The big problem with this is that like Oscar Bin Liner, it was our mistaken policies and actions that created ISIS, not a good place to start. When the history is written our interventions in the Middle East during the 20th century will be seen as one of the biggest instances of mismanagement of foreign policy ever.

[Tizer]

An illuminating article from Monbiot, thanks for posting the link. Somerset County Council is already in trouble over poor child care services so it's difficult to see how they would make cuts in that area, but I'm sure Cameron would expect them to do so.

Vince Cable exposing the truth about the real UK economic health in an article in today's Independent...
`Britain's economic recovery is precarious and an economic storm could be coming: Rising debt, a house price bubble, cheap money - does any of that sound familiar?' LINK

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Tiz. An illuminating article because I don't remember him shouting this from the rooftops in the Coalition government when he was Business secretary. He's absolutely right of course and I have been banging away at the same points for over seven years now. The really crucial one is the rising debt, we know that this is what caused the 2008 crash but every policy today relies on debt to fuel it whilst railing against 'public debt'. The bad news is that this thinking is embedded in the Tory policies, PFI is a good example... By the way, the appointment of the noble Lord Adonis who is an arch out-sourcer (who has never held an elected post) to lead the National Infrastructure Commission seems to point to the creation of even more long term liabilities.
This 'buy today pay tomorrow' attitude is at the bottom of the problem, in old fashioned terms it's the Micawber principle, to survive long term we have to cut our coat to suit the cloth but this isn't happening. We still spend money like drunken sailors on projects intended to reinforce our position as a world power and at the same time enforce austerity on the very people who generate 85% of domestic spending and fuel the economy. We end up with nuclear weapons that will never be used but are told we need them for deterrence. We build aircraft carriers with no planes. We finance public projects off the books at enormously high interest rates instead of using the cheapest credit ever to do the job. It's economic madness and the question is not whether there will be another crisis but when.... The Tories hope that this will not be before the next election so they can win another term on a lie.... What a mess!

[plaques]

The attached piece was written in 1640-50 as a pamphlet to the people. Although the language is in modern terms a little archaic the sentiment is still relevant today. I will leave it to the reader to substitute their own preferred name from the current Parliament in place of that of Cromwell.

"Wanted, a man of the most uncompromising honest and enterprising activity, who will undertake to clear St Stephen’s (ie: the Commons), and the whole country of a host of vermin who are fattening themselves upon the productions of our poor starving and miserable fellow countrymen. Any person of the name of Cromwell would be preferred."

[Stanley]

Nice one P. I got mail from a friend of mine this morning. It could go in many topics but in view of the fact I have been banging on about public service cuts and the effect on local councils, it can go here for at least one outing.

"Today all Lancs County Council staff were briefed on the proposed budget cuts planned for the next few years. The details were sent to the press this afternoon so you may have seen reports if you have looked online.
Forty out seventy-four libraries are to close. They plan to have one library in each of 34 so called 'service provision areas.' One of these covers Accrington and Oswaldtwistle, so Accrington may stay open (at least partially). Haslingden appears to be the only big library in the Rossendale West SPA so it may survive.
Six museums are to close. Queen Street as we expected, but also Helmshore. I'm not sure where that leaves Higher Mill. I assume the trustees will have to take it over again. Do you remember if the lease allowed either party to pull out before the end of the term? I assume that LCC bought the big mill when it closed, so they may try to sell it. If it is true (as Blundell said at that meeting at Woodcock's) that LCC had bought the Arkwright machines, I suppose they could sell those too."

See this LINK.

Later.... I hear that Cameron has been doing his Churchill impression. He does tend to get into motor-mouth mode if he thinks he can boost his 'statesman' status. I note that one of the things he said was 'we will not negotiate'. Has he learned nothing? In the end, despite all the high feelings, we will have to talk to Isis. The only alternative is outright war and destruction and even that won't alter the mind-set of the fundamentalists. We found this with the IRA. The Israel/Palestinian situation demonstrates exactly what happens if force alone is used. Once again the reaction of the government is knee-jerk rather than mature thought. I see that Corbyn is reported as being attacked by some of his party members last night for saying that he doesn't want to see a 'shoot to kill' policy. He is quite right, we need responsible calls for thought and moderation when feelings are running so high. Yes, Isis needs to be stopped and restrained but any ideas about destroying the movement are doomed to failure.
06:30. News coming in that the treasury has announced that agreement has been reached on departmental cuts with other ministries including, significantly IDS and Work and Pensions. It has been noted that the Home Office is notably absent as Theresa May comes under enormous pressure to scale back the cuts in the police in view of the present situation and the overall level of cuts is far below the 40% originally asked for by Ossie. He may be reaching the limit of possible cuts without being able to report any significant improvement in debt reduction or growth in the economy. This one isn't going to go away and one wonders how they will spin it in the Financial Statement.

[Stanley]

I saw Corbyn at PMQs yesterday and thought that he made a very valid contribution when he called for calm and clear thought. I'm convinced that this is what he was trying to convey to the Labour Party meeting but didn't get the point across. His detractors seem to have jumped to the conclusion he was saying that the authorities shouldn't return fire if attacked and I'm sure he didn't mean that. 'Shoot to kill' has very unfortunate connotations in recent history, remember Death on the Rock and some of the policies we suspect were in force in Ireland? Of late it has become sufficient for armed police to believe they are in imminent danger before opening fire and we have seen some very sad mistakes, remember the bloke carrying the chair leg? This is a very slippy slope and we have seen what it can lead to in recent cases in the US. In essence, I think Jeremy has a communication problem and the sooner he corrects it the better!
As for actions against ISIS, I think we are seeing classic mission creep. The French have sent the carrier Charles de Gaulle to the Med. If we had a serviceable carrier I have no doubt it would be steaming there as well. The Russians are using Cruise missiles as well as air power.... Obama talks about putting 'special forces' on the ground. It doesn't look good and the next thing we will be hearing about is 'collateral damage', the death of innocent civilians.... Do we never learn?

[Tizer]

Am I alone in thinking the extent and depth of coverage of the Paris attacks in the UK news media has been way over the top, especially when it happened in France, not the UK? There has been little news coverage other than Paris since Friday night. The media wallow in the hype and violence, the sirens, the social media style reports and it seems we have to listen to the views of anyone the journalists bump into. It continues on the newspaper front pages today, as if the media people want to cause maximum fright for their readers. Whose side are they on? The terrorists make the attacks but the news media spread the fear and disruption far and wide. And when we do get some other `major' news it's to tell us that a man has got HIV; I'm sorry for anybody who gets a serious disease but it doesn't warrant the vast news coverage it got in the last couple of days. Or maybe I'm the odd one out and everybody else in the world thinks that's important world news. And that the Paris attacks should be reported in minute detail day after day, creating exactly the outcome that the terrorists wanted.

[plaques]

Am I alone in thinking the extent and depth of coverage of the Paris attacks in the UK news media has been way over the top,

I have a lot of sympathy with the French on these attacks. They are in a totally different position to us in the UK. For some time now there has been areas in Paris that have reached a virtual 'no go' status. Thomo pointed out that that we are dealing with a culture that appears to have different standards to our own. Once unrest reaches a point where violence takes over the normal and possibly the only defense is to shoot back. Why the situation has reached this point is difficult to say but our own history in Ireland, Drogheda, Wexford. and 'The Irish War of Independence' all set the seeds of discontent. Certainly our media has gone over the top and if we are not careful we will considering everybody with a beard and Asian dress as an enemy. Our own government has added fuel to the fire by declaring that we have prevented 19 terrorist attacks over the last year with defining what these attacks were, Physical or cyber, UK or foreign doesn't help to calm the situation.

[Tripps]

"Am I alone in thinking the extent and depth of coverage of the Paris attacks in the UK news media has been way over the top, especially when it happened in France, not the UK? "

Probably not, but as a persistent news hopper on radio and TV, my experience this morning says that Sky and LBC 97.3 have given good intense coverage that the topic demands, whilst the BBC R5live (News and Sport), seems to have majored on the death of Jonah Lomu. Radio 4 has become a parody of itself, and is no longer worth bothering about.

How can it be over the top when it seems another attack this time in the business quarter, La Defence, has been prevented. Sceptical (as ever) though - I'm not sure about finding one fingerprint from a separated finger, and a passport (why take a passport on such a mission?) which was said to have been recovered, and the identification that one of the attackers was a Syrian refugee - by Greek officials - all within less than 24 hours of the first event. Yeah - right.

[Thomo]

Some very interesting comments there about the situation in France, the media coverage, and the effect that this can have on the populations of various countries and faiths. This mornings activities in the Saint Dennis suburb of Paris indicate that this is far from over. Whilst all of this may become a tad boring to some who sit comfortably at home, it is nevertheless a fact. It is unfortunate that many people of what is basically a sound religious faith may now find themselves under suspicion of being party to what has taken place, guilt by association perhaps, the perpetrators of these gross act of violence are doing normal Muslim people no favours at all. As for the rest of us who hope for the best and have our own feelings about such matters, most are fully aware that we need to be careful when expressing how we see these events, or run the risk of being branded as racists and so forth, They who are IS, and their supporters do not have these concerns and are free to carry on their activities, whilst we must wait and see what happens next.

[Stanley]

I don't think you are alone Tiz. As I said the other day, I suspect I have a fairly sanguine view of 'terrorist attacks' because I have something to compare them with. But that's me, and the product of my experience, the media are catering for an entirely different audience, in many cases young people whose only experience is gained from 'shoot 'em up' computer games. Did you notice that in the ISIS statement the other day they referred to the West collectively as 'crusaders'? I am often criticised for looking back down the years and identifying some of the root causes of this fundamental behaviour. When we made the incursion into Iraq I pointed out that there were people still alive who could remember how we behaved in Mesopotamia in the 1920s and 30s. The use of the word crusaders demonstrates that these people have not forgotten and are using the terrible examples of the West's mistakes to fuel their propaganda.
Many years ago I said that if we had spent the trillions on aid instead of arms, things could have been different. I'm afraid that concepts like that are submerged now in the general rage and indeed, in some cases, panic, being exhibited by world leaders with an eye to the general opinion of the mass of their voters. This is a toxic mix and can only lead to escalation, politicians are already talking about us 'being at war'. I find it all so depressing.....