Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 139
January 8, 2016
A Roll Call Of Chaos
Iran and Saudi Arabia have broken off diplomatic relations and are conducting a proxy Shia/Sunni civil war in Yemen. Iraq has a government with only limited authority, depending upon support from the US coalition helping its forces to drive back IS from its deep foothold in Sunni areas. These forces contain both Sunni and Shia militias. In Syria, Russia is helping Assad push back opposition forces, but they are recapturing rubble from which most of the population has fled. In spite of the vaunted power of the RAF contribution about which so much emotion flowed through the House of Commons, IS remains stubbornly entrenched. Relations between Turkey and Russia are at a low because of the downing of a Russian fighter jet and because Turkey hates Assad and may be turning a blind eye to IS oil contraband. All over the middle east there are wars, wars within wars, enemies among allies and governments saying one thing and doing another.
If this were not enough it is now clear that even if IS is losing ground in Iraq, it is gaining it in Libya, where there are two governments and scores of bandit militias and no functioning state. Cameron says little about his project to get rid of Gaddafi, which is as bad in outcome as Blair and Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile the corrupt and disunited government in Afghanistan is losing ground to the Taliban, who it turns out are against IS. So are they now friends?
It is difficult to recall a greater mess in international affairs, so much of which is of our own making. The project began as a means to make us safe and set the Arab people free. It has done neither. What is has done is bring misery to millions. It is a blot upon the pages of history which will be very hard to erase.
January 6, 2016
EU Referendum: Ministerial Free For All.
Cameron will pay a price for allowing Euro sceptic ministers to vote against him if and when he calls the referendum to endorse whatever deal he strikes with the EU. It is one thing for Corbyn in opposition to allow dissent in the shadow cabinet, but it is quite another for the prime minister to put up with disunity in the real one. People expect the government to lead; that is what they pay for. One which cannot make up its mind on an issue as profound as whether to walk out of the EU will never recover its authority. Labour never regained its composure after Wilson let the cabinet go its own way at the last referendum. Cameron will have the same problem. He can only avoid it by reshuffling his cabinet after he gets whatever deal he can and before he calls the referendum. It is imperative that he goes to the country with his government behind him. All of them.
Hess Mystery: Download .99p Paperback £4.99
DOWNLOAD OR PAPERBACK 
Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy and right hand man, flew to Scotland on a mysterious peace mission in 1941, which has never been convincingly explained, to meet unidentified politicians who wanted to end the war. The truth has been covered up for generations because to reveal it would somehow undermine the honour and constitutional fabric of the United Kingdom. Who was plotting against Churchill? What were the peace terms on offer? What happened to Hess? Was he killed in the War? Was the prisoner in Spandau a double?
There are many questions to which in the modern day one man, Saul Benedict has all the answers, because his parents were players in the drama involving Churchill, Hitler, leading politicians and an important Royal. Saul is an author and declares his intention to write a book to reveal all, but he is shot dead, apparently accidentally by a poacher. But was it an accident? Rick Coleman an investigative journalist determines to find out and in doing so to uncover the mystery.
Taking place in the modern day but with flashback chapters which gradually unfold the hidden secrets, the novel is a fast moving and compelling read based on the family knowledge of the author whose parents had connections to both Hess and Hitler and to British Intelligence.
Corbyn: A Gentle Reshuffle
There were lurid prophesies about a revenge reshuffle which were clearly exaggerated and, as is his style, the Labour leader took his time sounding out and deciding. In the end the changes were a refinement of the previous line up, not a root and branch reconstruction. The Tories had their usual laugh and loads of hostile briefings were put about by anti-Corbyn Labour MPs. One of the arguments was that because Corbyn was himself a serial rebel, he must tolerate rebellion in his team. That argument is plain silly.
Corbyn was indeed a serial rebel over three decades, but from the back benches. He was never in the shadow cabinet. He was a rebel, but now he is the Leader with a huge mandate and swelling membership, he is the main stream. Those who are opposed to his policies are the rebels and can rebel all they like, but , like the Leader they love to hate, from the back benches. A few, having had a bit of a telling off, remain in the shadow cabinet for now, but if they go on briefing and muttering against the party’s choice of leader, not for long. Post May elections at the latest.
One of the reasons Benn survived was the fact, now plain, that the bomb Syria vote was militarily pointless. There have been fewer than a handful of RAF sorties, with little practical effect and far short of the military impact those emotional Commons speeches wound everybody up to expect. So Benn gained acclamation opposing his leader and supporting the government at the price of an error of judgement. For an opposition politician that is not, in the long run, good.
January 4, 2016
EU: Oppose Deal With Poland
There is a report that the Polish government will offer Cameron a deal that in exchange for migrant benefit concessions from Poland, Britain should send troops there and support the setting up of NATO bases in that country.
This blog has been opposed to NATO’s eastward expansion following the end of the Cold War and considers the Polish proposal absolutely out of order. Poland has spent centuries quarrelling with its neighbours and a condition of its membership of the EU should have been that it learned to live with them. Putting NATO bases on Russia’s border would ensure the start of a new cold war and would cripple the EU economy. It is high time narrow self interest in Europe gave way to strategic thinking, which recognises that needling Russia brings no benefit to anyone. Russia, whether people like it or not, is a natural strategic partner to Europe, has helped rescue her from tyranny on three previous occasions, the most notable being the worst of all, the Nazis.
The rest of the world has learned to accept Germany is no longer Nazi, and it has to get the message that Russia is no longer Soviet. Failure to get that message will cost Europe dear. Cameron must tell Warsaw that he is not interested in their grubby little trade.
January 1, 2016
Downfall In Downing Street : Download Now! Or Buy Paperback
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.
Is Sleaze Back?
The New Year honours list has caused controversy because of awards to civil servants who appear from their career records to be undeserving and especially because of the knighthood given to the Tory election guru who directed for the party the successful campaign in May 2015. This was seen by many as divisive and negative and reliant upon the politics of fear. Whatever your view on the matter, there is no room for doubt on the substance. Politics is an occupation, it is over egging to call it a profession, which is so discredited, that almost the entire political class is seen as evasive, dishonest, self interested and incompetent. Fifteen million registered votes do not bother to actually vote.
The honours list is becoming tarnished with wear and tear, not least because it is run by the political establishment which clearly favours its own and rewards civil servants for toadyism more than for brilliance. There is now the whiff of sleaze beginning to waft around; a modern edition of the disease which did so much to kill the Major government and keep the Tories out of majority power for nearly twenty years. It is time to take stock. Not least because there are some very real heroines and heroes of out time who are on the list with just cause and it is wrong that their honours should suffer devaluation, because of the tawdry rewards of people who in too many cases have done more harm than good.
December 28, 2015
Climate Change: Time For Action
Any fool can see that the climate is changing. You can debate whether this is due to man made factors or whether it is a continuous and natural process. The impact is already to be felt in weather conditions which are more extreme than we have been used to. Rainstorms are heavier, winds stronger, heat waves more searing, droughts longer; the list goes on. In vulnerable parts of the world once in a lifetime weather events are now recurring with increasing frequency, in some cases year on year. Floods, fires, tornadoes, typhoons, snowstorms (or the lack of them) are all part of the consequences which will now have to be addressed, not as an add on to appease, but as a world project in which every country and community will have to engage.
In the UK it is apparent that the template for towns and villages through which rivers pass is no longer viable because the several hundred years through which they have developed enjoyed a more temperate climate than the one into which we are now passing. Rivers will have to be dredged, giant underground storm drains will have to be built, riverside properties demolished to allow a broader river bed, are just a few of a frightening list of mounting imperatives for which the government seems wholly unprepared.The cost will be eye popping. At present it looks as if £2 billion a year is going to be needed for a decade. The Chancellor will have to get to work on his sums.
December 27, 2015
Christmas Books
Browse my Amazon book page! Page turners with a difference costing less than you would think!
EU Referendum: Must the Cabinet Stand In Line?
Michael (Lord) Howard thinks not. So do many other euro sceptics and even some who are pro EU. This blog disagrees. It is one thing for the Opposition to wander down separate ways; it can afford the luxury of prejudice dressed as conscience or whatever. But not the Government. We all know the Tory party is split on an issue of critical importance to our country and that it cannot speak with one voice on anything connected with Europe and especially not whether we should stay or go. But constitutionally the government is separate from parliament, even if its ministers are drawn from its membership. And the public have a right to expect the government to lead, not as a fractured entity facing both ways but as a single unit backing the prime minister.
Wilson tried the indulgence of letting his ministers behave like back benchers last time. It wrecked the cohesion of his government which nearly wrecked the country, hastened his own resignation and certainly wrecked the Labour party. So this time round Cameron has one course only. Back me or go. He could be clever and reshuffle his cabinet at the end of the negotiations before he calls the referendum, thus setting the sceptics free, but on his terms.
