Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 42

Another White House Exit

It has been known for some time that General Kelly was unlikely to stay. It is surprising he lasted so long. The military mind is built on discipline, rules, order and obedience. You would think such qualities ideal for the seat of Executive Government. But the Trump White House is built around Trump. Most Presidents see themselves as smaller than the office they hold. Trump thinks he is bigger and America is lucky to have him. The thing is millions of Americans agree with him.

The political professionals wring their hands at the lack of process and attention to precedent. But Trump does not run on that kind of fuel. He is driven by ego (bigly), intuition, impulse and whim. And an absolute conviction that he is right and he will get his way. When you look at the relative failure of so many aspects of America’s foreign and domestic policies in the last thirty years or so leading to a yawning gap between rich and poor and a fading of the American dream, a disrupter who does it his way, is just what so many Americans in the country’s vast heartlands think they need in their national leader.

And they may be right.

Another White House Exit.

It has been known for some time that General Kelly was unlikely to stay. It is surprising he lasted so long. The military mind is built on discipline, rules, order and obedience. You would think such qualities ideal for the seat of Executive Government. But the Trump White House is built around Trump. Most Presidents see themselves as smaller than the office they hold. Trump thinks he is bigger and America is lucky to have him. The thing is millions of Americans agree with him.

The political professionals wring their hands at the lack of process and attention to precedent. But Trump does not run on that kind of fuel. He is driven by ego (bigly), intuition, impulse and whim. And an absolute conviction that he is right and he will get his way. When you look at the relative failure of so many aspects of America’s foreign and domestic policies in the last thirty years or so leading to a yawning gap between rich and poor and a fading of the American dream, a disrupter who does it his way, is just what so many Americans in the country’s vast heartlands think they need in their national leader.

And they may be right.

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Tory Turmoil: Watch Amber Rudd

It is pointless for this blog to entangle itself in the chaotic political situation in which this country finds itself after eight years of Tory led rule, but as the country faces the biggest peacetime crisis in living memory, perhaps ever, the level of fantasizing by one government minister after another is horrific. Everyone talks at cross purposes while declaring they back May and her deal, but at the same time this, that or the other would perhaps be better. There is only one deal and the for good or ill is May’s.  There could have been others but the challenge was beyond the intellectual capacity of any of the hard core Brexiteers. The all know exactly what it is they are against but none offers any clarity of detail as to what it is they are for.

So now it is May or nothing. And of course the arguments have begun about what nothing means, especially as nothing appears ever more likely. Enter Amber Rudd. She is talking sense and arguing her points with clarity. Watch out for her.

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 Zara Vine is a modern woman with a troubled history and a talent for turning baggage into power. As the youngest Detective Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police she is forced to resign because of an armed response in which an innocent is shot. Her career in tatters, her marriage over and worst of all, the death of her only child, she decides to leap to oblivion from a famous cliff top. Saved by a Samaritan, she self-drives a rebirth and joins the Polechester City Police, the smallest UK force. Initially tasked with Cold Cases, she is called in to solve a series of murders with sinister undertones and national implications. But who exactly is she? Who are her real masters? What is her agenda? Dubbed the She Wolf and the alpha female, she drives all before her in the search for answers and uncovers crimes of world class horror in Book One. Written in a very modern style, compelling, taught with emotion, passion and fear, Zara Vine will draw you in and grip you right through to the stunning conclusion. It will also stir your conscience as it asks some of the questions few dare confront.

 

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Brexit Chaos: Where Are We Now?

Good Question. For which there is no answer. In spite of minor concessions and a blizzard of ministerial interventions all over the country, the expectation is that May will lose the vote on Tuesday. In the olden days before Cameron’s silly parliament act, that would have been the end of the government. But now it is possible, even likely, May will battle on. She does battling on. It’s her thing. A peculiar twist in a political and constitutional knot which cannot be unraveled, is that if she wins, the DUP will walk out of its confidence and supply agreement, meaning that the government will fall anyway before long.

As one opposed to the folly of the whole Brexit idea which in any form leaves this country and its people poorer, with diminished authority and curbed freedoms, I could live with May’s deal if it ever came to pass. This is because it essentially cedes a huge amount of political authority to the EU, particularly in areas of everyday life affecting ordinary people. Such is the incompetence of our own political class, the fiasco of Brexit and the inability to come up with a viable plan illustrates this, that we will all be safer, better off and more fairly treated if decisions are made by grown ups in the EU, while our own childish political brawlers are cut out of the loop.

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Zara Vine is a modern woman with a troubled history and a talent for turning baggage into power. As the youngest Detective Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police she is forced to resign because of an armed response in which an innocent is shot. Her career in tatters, her marriage over and worst of all, the death of her only child, she decides to leap to oblivion from a famous cliff top. Saved by a Samaritan, she self-drives a rebirth and joins the Polechester City Police, the smallest UK force. Initially tasked with Cold Cases, she is called in to solve a series of murders with sinister undertones and national implications. But who exactly is she? Who are her real masters? What is her agenda? Dubbed the She Wolf and the alpha female, she drives all before her in the search for answers and uncovers crimes of world class horror in Book One. Written in a very modern style, compelling, taught with emotion, passion and fear, Zara Vine will draw you in and grip you right through to the stunning conclusion. It will also stir your conscience as it asks some of the questions few dare confront.          U.S.A.

Government In Turmoil

Nobody predicted what is now happening, because not a single rational person thought events  unfolding could happen. In Great Britain. The home of stable, decisive government and world class statecraft. Yet, here we are with a government now on the threshold of being voted in contempt of parliament and additionally facing certain defeat on its main policy platform, upon which parliament itself is so divided no alternative is in sight with any chance of commanding a majority. But, through tinkering with our fabled unwritten constitution (rather than writing and codifying a proper one approved by the people) without the constitutional means to end this torture.

Before the idiotic Fixed Term Parliament act we had two balancing powers which avoided any prospect of the spectacle now unfolding. The Prime Minister alone had the power to ask the Queen for a dissolution, so as to give democratic voice to the people and could do so without notice to anybody but the Monarch. And Parliament could sack the government by passing a motion of no confidence in it. If carried by one vote the government resigned and an election was called. That is how Thatcher came to power in 1979.

So here we are today in the midst of the greatest constitutional change since the Reformation, promoted as a restoration of sovereignty previously ceded to the EU, but which in the event turns out to be the greatest loss of sovereignty in our history.  Nobody in government, parliament, the law, the media or anywhere knows what will happen next.

 

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A Plea for the Forgotten

Brexit, like a forest fire, is starting to consume everything in its path. The government, parliament, the media, everybody it seems including this blog, talk and argue about nothing else.

Yet out there we have disgusting vermin and drug invested prisons, thousands sleeping rough on the streets, unsafe maternity units, deficient mental healthcare, problems with Universal Credit unresolved, shortages of decent affordable housing; the list is long and disturbing. One after another watchdogs and investigators report on problems which shock, right across the public service sector, yet which remain unresolved. Statements are issued by one ministry after another showing either complacency, denial or dysfunction.

This is no way to run a country. Brexit is one thing. It should not be there at all or it should be better organised. But all the rest are actually people’s lives, ongoing, right now. And they must be addressed with action and improvement, not platitudes and excuses. Right now.