Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 99
February 14, 2017
Thriller : Hess Secrets Revealed
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. 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? A real time thriller with flashback chapters which gradually unfold the hidden secrets, this tense drama will draw you into a compelling read.
Trump: Another Mishap?
Nobody around the world at large has ever heard of General Flynn. Nor do they really understand what the National Security Adviser is. So the fact that this man has resigned from that post will not shake the planet. Obviously it has shaken the White House. The issue is, does the White House go on shaking?
First of all we are in for a slice of the boring who knew what when. Flynn accepts he told porkies, but now the bloodhounds want to know who knew he was telling porkies and whether he was instructed to tell them. This blog does not wish to go down that fetid path and will instead stay in the clear open air. What is important is that this unusual and energetic presidency does not get bogged down in sillies, when there is much that it must do to deliver upon the expectations of its supporters and to unite a country which, polls suggest, is beginning to swing slowly behind a new adventure in democratic government.
This is about an agenda set by people, not by politicians. It is about jobs and security. In that context whether Michael Flynn did or did not talk to the Russian Ambassador about ending some very stupid sanctions is neither here nor there. It would be quite normal in any other democracy with an incoming government, not one of which is known to have an eighteenth century law prohibits such conversations. There are moments when America exasperates. It needs to reflect upon the efficacy of some of its processes. They appear not to serve it well.
February 13, 2017
Prisons: A Systemic Failure
Liz Truss, the Justice Secretary, has not addressed the problem of overcrowded prisons. She has addressed the theory of overcrowded prisons with a wordy speech, typical of the modern political class of careerist climbers. There is no quick fix she says. Well there has to be because the prisons are in crisis and action is needed now, at least to ease the pressure on inadequate accommodation, too few staff and too many prisoners. This is because of a deliberate policy of longer sentences, dysfunctional rehabilitation programmes and cuts both in staff and the volume of places. We send more people to jail than any other country in Europe with less success at stopping re-offending. The prisons are now run not by the authorities but by drug cartels. None of this is by misfortune. It is the direct consequence of bad decisions by successive governments, mostly Tory.
Prison is for offenders who are a danger to the public. While in there it must be a requirement to rehabilitate and retrain offenders to return to society reformed and straight. There will be a hard-core who are beyond redemption and some who can never be set free, but these are a minority. Non dangerous first offenders should go to a different kind of institution with a better form of punishment combined with restitution for those damaged by their acts.
There have to be enough prison places to meet demand, enough trained staff to run them and enough security not just to keep people in, but to keep drugs out. None of this, absolutely none of it, should be outsourced to private contractors. If ever there was no place for shareholder profit, it is in this critical public service. What we want from Liz Truss is an action plan to put our broken prison estate back together. Her speech did not deliver one.
February 11, 2017
Trump Blinks
There are signs that wiser counsels are prevailing in the Trump White House, leading to musings on Air force One that a new initiative is to be launched next week to restore credibility to the President’s immigration policy. Nothing the United States has done in the last half century has attracted so much opposition and outrage all across the world, as the travel ban now embroiled in the legal system.
This is not because anyone questions the right of the US President to take steps to protect the integrity of his country from terrorists or its citizens from attack, but because the measures introduced were arbitrary and unfair in structure and potentially dangerous in effect. Above all the implementation was utterly shambolic, doubly so for the omnipotent United States of America, leaving many of Trump’s supporters alarmed. His detractors were gleeful that they had early proof that the new President was a fruitcake. Just as they had warned.
There is no doubt that the American heartlands are nervous about their security and opinion polls confirm this with a majority supporting Trump’s hard line. So all he has to do is to offer up a new Executive Order which is up to the job the American people want him to do. The first debacle can readily be put down to inexperience all round. There cannot be a second.
Tor Raven: Hess Secrets Revealed
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. 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? A real time thriller with flashback chapters which gradually unfold the hidden secrets, this tense drama will draw you into a compelling read.
Corbyn’s Warning: His Best Option?
Corbyn has written to his rebels and told them this time they escape punishment, but they must be good in future. Given that Brexit transcends party lines in England, this apparently limp response is probably the wisest course.
I have remarked before that Corbyn’s Labour party is surprisingly successful in the House of Commons when judged on its ability to change the direction of government policy and influence the political flow of events. There is now a suspicion that a ragged opposition is more effective in parliament than one drummed neatly into line. This could well be the case, as more members feel emboldened to express an opinion, increasing the depth and variety of debate. On the other hand there is evidence that voters take the opposite view. For its disunity Labour may be about to pay a shattering electoral price. The leadership is campaigning for all its worth, but nevertheless awaits the outcome of the two approaching by-elections in its heartlands with anxiety. Apparently both have been Labour seats since 1935.
However, although the Tories look the more united behind the vicarage style verities which pour from their leader’s lips, there are many big potholes in their road to final Brexit, some so deep as to have the potential to cause the wheels to fly off the Tory government altogether. In particular the fact that the hard Brexit model chosen by May (there is no such thing as Clean Brexit) is anathema to the many, many, Remain Tories, not just in parliament, but across their voting strongholds in the South East. Conversely Labour supporters for Brexit and those for Remain can more easily unite behind the soft Brexit model for which Labour will campaign.
So watch carefully and take nothing for granted. Even if Labour gets a drubbing on February 23rd.
February 9, 2017
Refugee Children: What Is The Government Thinking?
Compared to the ongoing diaspora of vast multitudes heading out of the Middle East and North Africa, the British Scheme to welcome up to 3000 unaccompanied children into the UK was a welcome, if tiny, contribution to the disastrous outcome of a string a failed foreign intervention initiatives by the West, in which Britain played a leading part. To announce today that the scheme would be halted at 350 arrivals has shocked parliament and the country.
No explanation is sufficient. The one given by the Home Secretary that French officials complained to her that giving these children sanctuary and a fresh start in a promising new life ‘encouraged people traffickers’ is patently absurd. Let us hope she will stop and think again. If not we must hope the Courts will order her to do so. Apparently legal proceedings begin tomorrow.
February 8, 2017
Political Thriller: Download 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. 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 ($2.51) Paperback 8.99 ($12.99) UK US
Hammond: Soon To Be The Focus
The 2017 Budget is approaching. Having done next to nothing useful with his Autumn Statement, Hammond has to come up with some firm policies and clear thinking. The time for silly forecasts which are never right is past. As are tiny sums spread over five years to bridge a funding gap. No longer is being the fastest growing economy in the G7 good enough if it means 2% or thereabouts annual growth.
This is because the Treasury has a chronic income shortfall and expenditure is already cut to the point where critical public services are at risk and malfunctioning at pressure points. What is needed is substantial and significant economic growth. This requires a government stimulus in three areas; infrastructure, public rental housing and home production of the stuff we at present import to consume. The last of these is the driver of growth and will be achieved by the private sector mostly with its own money, the first two are the enablers and must be funded entirely by the government, either by borrowing, or printing, or both. Sterling must remain very competitive. Tax concessions can be used as an incentive to kick start the regeneration of home produced goods, as can access to cheap start up funds via a national investment bank. This post is not the place for detail, which is available elsewhere, but it does outline the economic priorities.
The aim is simple. There must be enough revenue to pay properly for essential services like health, education, social care and prisons. If unwelcome rates of high taxation are to be avoided, the solution must lie in economic expansion. Consistent growth of 4%-5% per year for some years is the only way out of austerity, poor living standards, terrible productivity and lower expectations. No matter what the terms of Brexit. And it must be led by cutting imports and replacing the shortfall with home production. In other words the biggest export success of the post Thatcher era has been exporting jobs. Decent skilled jobs to offer a future to a loyal workforce. Those jobs have to be repatriated and our economy, based on consumption, has to consume what we make and grow to a much, much greater extent than is now the case. Exports will take care of themselves, not least because the low pound and regeneration of industrial capacity across a wide range of goods, will present a much more diverse offer to overseas markets.
What Hammond has to do when he waves his red box on the steps of Number 11 and then holds forth in the Commons on his Big Day, is to inaugurate economic revival. Nothing less.
February 7, 2017
A Plan For Labour : Download Now
Turn Left To Power is a dissertation in book form offering a fundamental redirection for Labour, with bold ideas for a new economic and social settlement, including economic and taxation reform, restoration of responsibility in government and a renewal of democracy. Full of detailed information, hard facts and the results of thorough research, the narrative will grip you like a thriller and open your eyes to a brighter, fairer future in a mere 25000 words.
Frank and at a times brutal, Turn Left To Power offers what amounts to a political revolution.
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