Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 128
April 25, 2016
Downing Street Thriller
Set in the mid nineteen nineties, this fast moving thriller lifts the curtain on sex, sleaze and corruption in high places as the long reign of the government totters to an end, following the ousting of the iconic Margaret Thatcher. The novel catches the mood of those times with a host of fictional characters who engage in political intrigue, sex, money laundering and murder, pursued by an Irish investigative journalist and his girlfriend, the daughter of a cabinet minister found dead in a hotel room after bondage sex.
Download £2.08 Paperback 8.99
Doctors At War
This dispute has now turned ugly. The junior doctors are about to go out on all out strike for the first time in the history of the NHS. The government now accuses them of being politically motivated and trying to bring down the Health Secretary and even the government itself. This is an extraordinary claim from a government engulfed in its own civil war over Brexit, its budget a fiasco and now in trouble over the unpopular proposal for compulsory academies for all. It hardly needs the junior doctors to lend a hand since it appears trying to topple itself.
The plain fact is that following re-organisations which began with Thatcher, went on apace under New Labour, continued with some restraint with the Coalition and now again in full swing, the NHS is a chaotic structure of quangos, trusts, foundations and commissioning boards led by overpaid executives who waste vast resources going round in circles. Meanwhile problems with waiting times and budget deficits mounting, integration of health care more rhetoric than reality and a funding system which is mathematically dysfunctional, this Health Secretary thinks it good to pick a fight with the very young people upon whom all our lives depend. It tells you all you want to know about Jeremy Hunt and the government of which he is a member. But now times are changing. The public by a margin is behind the young doctors and the young everywhere are mobilising against the dead hands of power which hobble their lives.
April 24, 2016
The Queen At 90.
Only a minority can remember the day Elizabeth II became Queen. I was just coming up to thirteen at the time and I recall it with surprising clarity. It was a chill and gloomy day when the news came, in a formal announcement on the BBC radio (then the wireless) that the King was dead. The nation was stunned. He was so young. He had been there for them all through the terrible war, the bombs and the sorrow and he had been there at the end to celebrate victory. It was this shock which consumed the nation that day rather than too many thoughts about the new Queen, away with her husband in Kenya at the start of a tour on the King’s behalf. Of course she flew back at once.
It was the picture of her emerging from the aircraft on her return, a tiny figure dressed in black, but not veiled, on the top of the steps, with the entire Cabinet bare headed and lined up below, led by Churchill, now her Prime Minister, that brought home to the nation that it was about to experience a change unknown since Victoria’s accession in 1837. Victoria presided over the expansion of the British Empire to its highest point to make Britain the number one world power. Elizabeth was destined to preside over the dissolution of that Empire in a seamless transition to a voluntary Commonwealth with few sorrows and little bloodshed. Now nobody regrets its passing and the young have only a vague idea of what the Empire was. But Britain is still there at the centre of the world, not an Empire any longer, but a power still. Not a super-power but a special sort of power with a unique and mysterious authority which cannot be defined.
It is perhaps best explained by the magic of the Monarch, a Head of State like no other, admired by even republicans, a kind of Queen for all the world; Elizabeth at 90. And long may she reign.
Psycho Thriller Offer
The latest edition of this ever popular psycho-thriller, now in its twentieth year, has a dramatic new cover and is offered for a limited period at the special price of £5.99 paperback and .99p Download. A haunting tale of passion and the paranormal, written in the style of its setting in the 1920s.
A tiny English village slumbers on the Surrey/Sussex borders, but the pastoral exterior hides a number of nightmare secrets.
The return of a young man after a long absence stirs memories of the horrific murder of his mother and uncle years earlier and of an ancient curse delivered upon the family in Napoleonic times. The villagers’ unease grows as the young man embarks upon an affair with the local farmer’s daughter, and a series of mysterious deaths seem to follow in his wake. Full of authentic period detail, this is a tale which will haunt readers long after the last page has been turned.
Obama Drama
President Obama, hugely popular in the UK, has not hidden behind impartiality nor minced his words. The vote is for the British people, but here is what I think is his message. Moreover he drives in hard. As president of the US he has a right to state America’s preference over what happens in Europe, because when it screws up America has to ride to the rescue, testified by thousands of US graves far from home. Britain in Europe reassures America that the fabric of unity will hold.
So a delighted Cameron beams as the President pours scorn on the ease with which Leave claim to be able to fix a trade deal with the US. ‘Back of the queue’ and ‘five to ten years’ are among the phrases deliberately used in high profile media events. Hilary weighs in across the Atlantic and says Britain should stay put. Boris goes berserk. He completely loses it and starts to say the most stupid things you can imagine and hurling nasty, almost racist insults. Talk about throwing toys from the pram. Woweee!
Leave have only themselves to blame. They have been preparing for this for over thirty years and they have nothing concrete to offer at all. They are either stupid or lazy or lack judgement or all three. They should have been having talks in Washington, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Delhi, Canberra, Ottawa and all over, meticulously fleshing out a programme and a direction of travel. But no, too much effort. Well now it is all coming out. There is nothing on offer but faith in a bunch of zealots, harking back to a world no longer there, hoping that things will turn out okay. Of course there may be a reason for this. They may be quite canny. They know there will lose so why bother.
So as the week ends Cameron is rescued from the nadir in his fortunes the week before, Boris has fallen off his perch and been revealed not as a majestic bird of prey but a rather noisy rooster without any hens and Obama today sets off for Germany and Angela. Just to rub it in if you have not been listening.
April 22, 2016
Book Offer: The Judas Cross
The latest edition of this ever popular psycho-thriller, now in its twentieth year, has a dramatic new cover and is offered for a limited period at the special price of £5.99 paperback and .99p Download. A haunting tale of passion and the paranormal, written in the style of its setting in the 1920s.
A tiny English village slumbers on the Surrey/Sussex borders, but the pastoral exterior hides a number of nightmare secrets.
The return of a young man after a long absence stirs memories of the horrific murder of his mother and uncle years earlier and of an ancient curse delivered upon the family in Napoleonic times. The villagers’ unease grows as the young man embarks upon an affair with the local farmer’s daughter, and a series of mysterious deaths seem to follow in his wake. Full of authentic period detail, this is a tale which will haunt readers long after the last page has been turned.
Brexit Thoughts 9: Reality v Dreams
It looks as if we have got through the idiotic phase of wild and dire forecasts from Remain and rivers of phantom cash from Leave. We are moving into a new dimension where hard truths are debated. Leave’s heavy weapons are immigration and borders. Remain’s heavy weapons are jobs and the economy. Remain’s weapons are more powerful.
At this point I want to look at another occasion when somebody decided to leave a Union back in America in 1860/61. The Confederacy was high on idealism, overflowing with confidence, driven by passionate belief in its cause and confident that its economic power, derived from cotton exports to Britain and France, would force both to recognise it as an independent nation. Its industry was weak and its economic plans were fluid. Wishful thinking flowed like a torrent through every nook and cranny of this new nation, which for all the heroism and hope, was doomed to fail. Britain and France gave a bit of covert aid but turned east for vital cotton and in the end turned their backs. The new nation stood, tottered and fell alone. All the calculations mistaken, all the assumptions flawed and all the elan and glamour enshrined in the dream powerless in the face of the hard battering ram of the reality of the world as it had now become, which was not going to turn back to an older page, to accommodate a new nation looking back to values of a departed age.
It is now the case that not a single national leader, nor banker, nor economist, nor statistician of any stature or reputation in the world has come out to support the Leave campaign ; indeed the line up supporting Remain is becoming awe-inspiring. Why is this?
The answer is simple. This is not about borders, sovereignty, immigration or economics. It is about rows of crosses marking battlefields where millions have died, about a continent that has engaged in almost uninterrupted strife for nigh on one and a half thousand years, which has come together to create a voluntary Union albeit with many flaws, which is the greatest political achievement since the fall of the Roman Empire. It is about an island nation with a footprint which one way and another bestrides the world, without whom this Union may not in the end endure. Because whether Britain likes it or not, it is one of the three great powers of Europe and without it and its funny ways neither it nor the Union will thrive. The world will become a poorer more dangerous place.
In the cold light of morning when dreams turn to dust, nobody wants that.
April 21, 2016
Trump V Clinton: A Thought or Two
Had either lost New York it would have been a game changer. But both won big, so the game is now resumed after one or two recent uncertainties. Bernie Sanders has made his mark, a mark few thought possible, but it seems far fetched that he could now win the nomination. Trump cannot now be stopped during the electoral process, but he may not have quite enough in the end to clinch the deal and become the Republican nominee. That means a convention decision and if Trump loses there, the anger at the grass roots will be such that the Presidency will be out of reach of the GOP. A Clinton/ Trump battle in November would be one of the most exhilarating in modern times. Clinton looks the favourite, especially since Trump uttered the toxic punish women line.
But whereas Clinton is predictable, Trump is the master of the big surprise. It is not impossible that he might just pull off the biggest surprise of all. If he wins it may turn out better than many fear. The US President does not have a lot of power in the US homeland, a lot less than a British PM. It is in defence (US defense) and Foreign Affairs that the President has power. Trump would argue for new weapons but when he saw the cost he would veto the expenditure. So to pay for stuff there would be cuts. It would be a smaller, sharper military with a lot fewer generals and admirals. On the world stage he would cut deals based on an assessment of the other side’s red lines and how he could trade these off against US priorities.
Clinton would be more like the lawyer she is. She would stake out her claim and stick with it till she got what she wanted or got nothing. She would be cautious and pragmatic and a safe pair of hands. Not a great deal would change, but social issues would improve and the economy would be secure. The would be ups and downs but no peaks or troughs. Most people would sleep well at night.
Many would not sleep at all with Trump out there, but then in the end he might just achieve something worthwhile.
April 16, 2016
The Rise Of Corbyn
With Boris now in play, Cameron badly damaged and morphed to Dodgy Dave, with Osborne devalued by his budget disaster, Remain is in trouble. The dozens of bankers, foreign leaders and business men pleading for Britain to stay are no match for one Boris arguing to leave. So it could very well be that the world will be rocked, and believe me it will be, by the unthinkable spectacle of Britain walking from Europe.
Everything now hangs on Labour and the Unions. Largely united and backing Remain, the latest polls reveal Labour ahead of the Tories for the first time in this parliament and guess who is trusted more on Europe by voters than Cameron, Osborne or even Boris? Jeremy Corbyn.
This blog is chuffed because it backed Corbyn from the start when he was a no hoper standing for the Labour leadership last year. Why? Because my friends we are in an historic vortex of political change. A change of political weather as many would put it. And when that happens all the verities about political realities, all your accumulated skills and wisdom as a politician, commentator, academic or observer which you have built up since 1979 and the advent of Thatcher, count for nothing. That software is obsolete and no longer recognised by the people who will not open it again. The hardware has been upgraded to different values. The era of Me First is over. Self Interest is supplanted by the Common Good. It will be the people’s judgement of where that lies which will determine how the UK winds up in June.
