Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 180
March 10, 2015
Is Labour Losing?
It is too early to tell but more polls are beginning to put the Tories a point or two ahead. This may be a passing moment in a race where both parties are, and have been for some months, neck and neck. Or it may be a trend. If the trend continues all sorts of unusual voting patterns would have to be in play for Labour to win. Whether Labour does well enough to lead a coalition is another question which will much depend on Scotland.
This Blog has repeatedly warned that Labour lacks a big narrative with enough weight to carry it forward to victory. A series of policy announcements with worthy promises are not a narrative to stir the heart. They are a menu from which to compare the offerings of another set of cooks. The problem for all opposition parties is that when it comes to choosing, unless there is a real vision of better times, the tendency of cautious voters is to opt for the chef they know whose dishes they are used to.
But in the end it may all come down to how many vote for smaller parties and where and with what impact.
March 9, 2015
Political Thriller: Kindle or 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. Downfall in Downing Street 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.
AMAZON.COM AMAZON.UK Kindle or Papaerback
Jean-Claude Juncker: EU Army? Listen to Kissinger.
The President of the European Commission is reported to have opened the debate on whether Europe should have its own army. It already has NATO. A European Army without a government to control it is a bad if not worse than a currency without a government. No wonder the Kremlin is nervous. It looks West and sees a Europe with all sorts of disagreements and problems, its economy in the doldrums, becoming ever more strident and expansionist and now there is talk of an army.
Yesterday the veteran Dr Henry Kissinger was interviewed on BBC radio and said some very interesting things. He said NATO could not go on expanding, it lacked a clear strategy, Russia had been mishandled and its historical position and current security anxieties mis-read. The Ukraine crisis was unnecessary, the diplomacy used was misguided and Ukraine would end up with less territory under its control than if it had been more perceptive of the realities of its situation at the beginning. He said there needed to be countries between Russia and Europe who had ties with both and who should not be forced to choose. He ended up by fearing that there was a real risk of Cold War conditions returning and recalled that in 1914 various countries which did not want, or expect, war did a number of things which seemed perfectly reasonable but which in combination created a chain of events nobody was able to control.
The advice of this blog is listen to Kissinger, not to Junker. He went on to say sooner or later the West would have to sit down with Russia and talk. Why not do that?
March 7, 2015
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. Downfall in Downing Street 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.
AMAZON.COM AMAZON.UK Kindle or Papaerback
Public Investment Without Borrowing: A New Idea
Politicians do not like to talk about the fragile nature of the UK’s Economic Recovery. Yet it remains rooted in borrowing, asset inflation, housing costs which are out of control and a housing shortage which continues to grow. It is consumption based in a country which no longer makes things for shoppers to buy, so jobs are exported and things are imported. Wages are at near historic lows, requiring subsidy and support from the government, even for those in work. The list goes on and on and you know it well. If you are a politician you never talk about it because you cannot see any other way forward. If you are in the top 10% you have never had it so good. If you are young and unemployed you are close to despair.
Yet it does not have to be like this. There is another way. Dynamic Quantitative Easing. It is only 2500 words in easy read format. To turn this original paper into a booklet, the January 2015 posts of this blog have been added. This bold new idea for economic growth will empower you with a greater understanding of what is happening in our economy and how we can change things for the better.
Download or Paperback from .99p
Boehner Gets It Wrong
Supplying arms of any kind to Ukraine will only encourage it to keep fighting. The violence stems from Kiev refusing to accept that its right wing declarations and violent supporters frightened the life out of ethnic Russians to the point where independence and Russian backing seemed the only safe option. Had it recognised from the start that bad government from the inception of independence, long memories of WWII atrocities and different ethnicities and cultures, made a unitary state impossible and a federated structure the only viable option, then none of the killing and civilian suffering would have happened.
Negotiations for the setting up a method of governance which calmed the fears and met the aspirations of everyone would have been tough and with a good deal of posturing but not impossible. Instead Kiev sent in troops hoping to push NATO into supporting it. This has not happened and Kiev must now sit down and cut a deal with its Eastern rebels in a much worse atmosphere of hate brought on by killing. Giving it weapons will not enable it to win its war and get back its territory. It will only guarantee a long and bloody conflict which will go on, like in Syria, until most of everything lies in ruins.
Obama understands this. Boehner does not. The Republicans will have to make up their minds whether they want to have a policy to encourage peace or whether they just want to pick a fight.
BROWSE MY BOOKS WITH THESE LINKSScot Nats Cause Panic In England.
Kenneth Baker thinks there may have to be what the Germans call a grand coalition including both Labour and Conservatives, in order to combat a large contingent of Scottish nationalists elected to Westminster in May. Both are unionist parties and they campaigned together for No in the Scottish referendum. He fears a Labour/Scot Nat coalition would mean conceding further devolved powers north of the border. Meanwhile Milliband is to tell the Scots that if they vote for the nationalists they will end up with Cameron remaining in 10 Downing Street.
Both of these approaches are misguided and do not any longer have a sufficient resonance with voters to swing many of them to change their minds. The days when people were happy to vote against parties by voting for someone they did not actually support in order to keep the one they hated from winning have largely past. Modern voters are fed up with the old system and determined to vote for something they want, admire, trust or believe in. They are willing to include smaller parties in their list of possibilities. The reason that there in such an unprecedented surge in support for the Scottish Nationalists is that the majority of Scots now believe Salmond and co will fight Scotland’s corner in Westminster in a way no other party can or will. In other words they are voting for Scotland, a big idea a good deal larger than Cameron, Milliband, Clegg et al.
March 4, 2015
Public Investment Without Borrowing: A New Idea
Politicians do not like to talk about the fragile nature of the UK’s Economic Recovery. Yet it remains rooted in borrowing, asset inflation, housing costs which are out of control and a housing shortage which continues to grow. It is consumption based in a country which no longer makes things for shoppers to buy, so jobs are exported and things are imported. Wages are at near historic lows, requiring subsidy and support from the government, even for those in work. The list goes on and on and you know it well. If you are a politician you never talk about it because you cannot see any other way forward. If you are in the top 10% you have never had it so good. If you are young and unemployed you are close to despair.
Yet it does not have to be like this. There is another way. Dynamic Quantitative Easing. It is only 2500 words in easy read format. To turn this original paper into a booklet, the January 2015 posts of this blog have been added. This bold new idea for economic growth will empower you with a greater understanding of what is happening in our economy and how we can change things for the better.
Download or Paperback from .99p
March 3, 2015
Downfall In Downing Street
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. Downfall in Downing Street 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.
AMAZON.COM AMAZON.UK Kindle or Papaerback
