The calendar was right. The Paralympic closing ceremony and its inspirational sequel the following day just over a week ago when most of the British Olympic and Paralympic teams paraded through London marked the end to the country's truly remarkable summer. It has been memorable for its upbeat flavours, athletic, organisational and individual achievements in cheerfully delivering the Royal Jubilee, the Olympics and Paralympics. The role of the 70,000 volunteers who gave their time for free was truly amazing. They worked in scores of different activities, some requiring trained professionals and others enthusiatic amateurs ,all demonstrating what unstinting teamwork can achieve,- and without money having to be the motivator. The athletes gave wonderful performances, the choreography, electronic miracles of the ceremonies and the unseen strategic and on the day planning and operation superb. Above all it was a summer of good humour and positivism.
Happily the media attention given to all these things largely blanked out the contrasting annual gathering in Brighton of the TUC brothers and sisters . For them all those people happily working for no money must have been hard for to bear. No claims of exploitation, demarcation disputes, squabbles over overtime, rest day working , "breaks" and suchlike must have been dreadful. Positivism, enthusiasm, going the extra mile. Dreadful concepts for the gathered miserabalists. No wonder that they booed even Ed Balls for surprisingly telling them the horrible truth that money doesn't grow on trees and that they voted not for offering to help design new ways ahead but instead to rush back to old ways backward . Strikes, a General Strike and even civil disobedience (aka riots ) , all hostile to those who prefer a normal life or need state run services ,are the delight of these throwbacks to the past . The union leaders and officials don't of course pay for "days of action" . Those who strike do but they are only the poor bloody infantry, the cannon fodder. Beware then, this miserable activists are back on the prowl again. Their agenda is simple. They don't like the current democratically elected government. They will not therefore do anything that could in any way make it-or the British economy,- successful. The interests of their members are not the drivers. Their ambitions to dictate political power are.
On the economic and political philosophy front, in a show of probably faux unity, the two Eds unveiled their latest fair society concept. In a breakaway from re-distribution of wealth idea the new idea hits your pockets even earlier,-before it's even got into them in fact. In the impact of squibs ratings this one didn't even hit "Damp" . It went straight into the "Soggy" or even "Dud" boxes. The "policy" is called pre-distribution of wealth. Maybe it's a trial run for their Party Conference piece. If so they should reconsider the two man horse costume for bigger impact. It's there somewhere in the old dressing up box.
Meanwhile over in Conservative Party HQ there is a clear sense of dynamism , urgency and energy to tackle the problem of Heathrow airport, currently the world's number one aviation hub, being fresh out of capacity. Clearly "something must be done" and a grip got on the situation FAST. The bold, courageous answer is to set up another Commission of Enquiry on the subject. Previous ones, all vetoed by a lethal mix of various party interests and sheer inaction lie somewhere on parliamentary shelves. Try reading the Roskill version of 1971 for an example. Again this time all possibilities will be considered ,-except the obvious, quickest and cheapest one delivered by private rather than public funds and requiring no big additional infrastructure. That's Heathrow's new third runway of course. To further demonstrate the government's resolve and determination to get to the answer and start building , the timescale requires an interim report on quick fixes by the end of next year , 2013, and the final report in as breathtakingly short timescale as 2015. Given a task of this urgency any business would put together a group of top quality people, aided by consultants if necessary, and give them six months max,- or be fired.
One must not overlook the LibDems in this roundup of miscreants. Thanks to their petulant response to the ditching of their less- than- high- priority- in-the-scale-of- things reform of the House of Lords , they have said they won't now stick with their previous agreement to support constituency reductions, boundary changes, and equalisation of voter numbers in time for the 2015 election. A highly undemocratic and illiberal cartwheel from folk who call themselves liberal , but did we really expect anything different, forward thinking and long term sensible?
Have we really got the politicians we deserve? Are we that bad?
Things haven't been too good in some other places either. Parts of the Arab world ( not all, BBC,not all) have seen riots and murders in response to an undoubtedly evilly intentioned video produced in the USA. While the video has been the catalyst, a whole host of issues are behind the anger both real and manufactured by antagonists to the west and to the USA in particular. Some of these antagonists are people to whom peace and stability , however much desired by the people ,are not useful .A highly unstable position has developed and been sharply demonstrated in Egypt, Libya and Yemen in particular. Syria was in turmoil already so didn't need any additional fuel on the various flames. More fundamental is that in this era of instant global communications there is a clash between those who believe in the rights of individuals to say, write, film ,publish or even think more or less anything they want and those who believe that there are substantial no-go areas. The test of "Does it give offence?" doesn't work. There are things in much of what is said and done in the world , or even next door, which can be interpreted this way by someone. The human race is going to have to either accept that and develop a thicker skin or turn the other cheek on occasions or accept very serious limitations on its freedoms.
South Africa is going through a bad patch too. The country needs inward investment, confidence in its ability to deliver and future political stability. A bitter inter-union dispute is being ruthlessly exploited by some politicians and used to urge workers into violence and making the mines, -for which you can read the country- "unmanageable. That isn't to say there aren't some real issues here but they are not political. Some are about wages which are undeniably low for what is an unpleasant and fundamentally dangerous job but most are about the failure of the government , the mining companies , business and industry to sweep away the deplorable , crowded , often violent and lawless living conditions in the mining and munciple townships. Tarmac roads, properly built houses, mains water and sewerage , electricity and community facilites are the basics . They are essential to head off a potential wave of future anger-driven mayhem. These things may be hugely expensive but the alternative is a national explosion and disaster somewhere down the line.
Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement took a bit of an unexpected bath in the former colony's part-way to- full- democracy elections. Overall it still commands the power to veto legislation but it was not a strong showing. Some of its problems are a lack of cohesion and strong popular leadership in its ranks and it will have to address these well before the next election in four years time. One nut to crack is the number of very conservative less well educated ,poorer and old people who do not feel part of 21st century, fast moving, dealing and money making Hong Kong and whose natural habitat is therefore the pro-Beijing and mainland grouping. There are more of them than many might think. There are also a lot more greater China or at least keep-Beijing happy enthusiasts in all walks of life than make themselves known or are visible on the surface. The same was true in colonial days when there was a lot of unspoken pro-Beijing and anti-British sentiment amongst the general population than was generally acknowledged.
Both of the former "big powers" also seem to be having democracy problems. In the USA the Republican Mitt Romney struggles through a mouthful of feet to gain credibility and traction. He plays well to many in America,- notably the religious right though even they are a bit confused as to where his particular brand of Godliness fits with others,- but he does not look inspiring abroad. Neither does a simple, comforting, "safe pair of hands" come readily to mind as a description of his reliabilty with nuclear buttons . His understanding of the world, its complexities, histories and cultures doesn't look impressive either. That's putting it mildly. Americans though don't seem to feel that overall they've got it too bad and especially to the inland majority what the rest of the world thinks, and even where it is, is not of great interest or concern. Many Russians on the other hand ,with Putin well dug in at the helm, probably do. think life could be a lot better. Certainly any of them not prepared to buckle under , tow the line, or work within the system must feel a deep sense of insecurity. Anyone who dares to conspicuously challenge the way things are knows they are in a high risk zone.
Happily the media attention given to all these things largely blanked out the contrasting annual gathering in Brighton of the TUC brothers and sisters . For them all those people happily working for no money must have been hard for to bear. No claims of exploitation, demarcation disputes, squabbles over overtime, rest day working , "breaks" and suchlike must have been dreadful. Positivism, enthusiasm, going the extra mile. Dreadful concepts for the gathered miserabalists. No wonder that they booed even Ed Balls for surprisingly telling them the horrible truth that money doesn't grow on trees and that they voted not for offering to help design new ways ahead but instead to rush back to old ways backward . Strikes, a General Strike and even civil disobedience (aka riots ) , all hostile to those who prefer a normal life or need state run services ,are the delight of these throwbacks to the past . The union leaders and officials don't of course pay for "days of action" . Those who strike do but they are only the poor bloody infantry, the cannon fodder. Beware then, this miserable activists are back on the prowl again. Their agenda is simple. They don't like the current democratically elected government. They will not therefore do anything that could in any way make it-or the British economy,- successful. The interests of their members are not the drivers. Their ambitions to dictate political power are.
On the economic and political philosophy front, in a show of probably faux unity, the two Eds unveiled their latest fair society concept. In a breakaway from re-distribution of wealth idea the new idea hits your pockets even earlier,-before it's even got into them in fact. In the impact of squibs ratings this one didn't even hit "Damp" . It went straight into the "Soggy" or even "Dud" boxes. The "policy" is called pre-distribution of wealth. Maybe it's a trial run for their Party Conference piece. If so they should reconsider the two man horse costume for bigger impact. It's there somewhere in the old dressing up box.
Meanwhile over in Conservative Party HQ there is a clear sense of dynamism , urgency and energy to tackle the problem of Heathrow airport, currently the world's number one aviation hub, being fresh out of capacity. Clearly "something must be done" and a grip got on the situation FAST. The bold, courageous answer is to set up another Commission of Enquiry on the subject. Previous ones, all vetoed by a lethal mix of various party interests and sheer inaction lie somewhere on parliamentary shelves. Try reading the Roskill version of 1971 for an example. Again this time all possibilities will be considered ,-except the obvious, quickest and cheapest one delivered by private rather than public funds and requiring no big additional infrastructure. That's Heathrow's new third runway of course. To further demonstrate the government's resolve and determination to get to the answer and start building , the timescale requires an interim report on quick fixes by the end of next year , 2013, and the final report in as breathtakingly short timescale as 2015. Given a task of this urgency any business would put together a group of top quality people, aided by consultants if necessary, and give them six months max,- or be fired.
One must not overlook the LibDems in this roundup of miscreants. Thanks to their petulant response to the ditching of their less- than- high- priority- in-the-scale-of- things reform of the House of Lords , they have said they won't now stick with their previous agreement to support constituency reductions, boundary changes, and equalisation of voter numbers in time for the 2015 election. A highly undemocratic and illiberal cartwheel from folk who call themselves liberal , but did we really expect anything different, forward thinking and long term sensible?
Have we really got the politicians we deserve? Are we that bad?
Things haven't been too good in some other places either. Parts of the Arab world ( not all, BBC,not all) have seen riots and murders in response to an undoubtedly evilly intentioned video produced in the USA. While the video has been the catalyst, a whole host of issues are behind the anger both real and manufactured by antagonists to the west and to the USA in particular. Some of these antagonists are people to whom peace and stability , however much desired by the people ,are not useful .A highly unstable position has developed and been sharply demonstrated in Egypt, Libya and Yemen in particular. Syria was in turmoil already so didn't need any additional fuel on the various flames. More fundamental is that in this era of instant global communications there is a clash between those who believe in the rights of individuals to say, write, film ,publish or even think more or less anything they want and those who believe that there are substantial no-go areas. The test of "Does it give offence?" doesn't work. There are things in much of what is said and done in the world , or even next door, which can be interpreted this way by someone. The human race is going to have to either accept that and develop a thicker skin or turn the other cheek on occasions or accept very serious limitations on its freedoms.
South Africa is going through a bad patch too. The country needs inward investment, confidence in its ability to deliver and future political stability. A bitter inter-union dispute is being ruthlessly exploited by some politicians and used to urge workers into violence and making the mines, -for which you can read the country- "unmanageable. That isn't to say there aren't some real issues here but they are not political. Some are about wages which are undeniably low for what is an unpleasant and fundamentally dangerous job but most are about the failure of the government , the mining companies , business and industry to sweep away the deplorable , crowded , often violent and lawless living conditions in the mining and munciple townships. Tarmac roads, properly built houses, mains water and sewerage , electricity and community facilites are the basics . They are essential to head off a potential wave of future anger-driven mayhem. These things may be hugely expensive but the alternative is a national explosion and disaster somewhere down the line.
Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement took a bit of an unexpected bath in the former colony's part-way to- full- democracy elections. Overall it still commands the power to veto legislation but it was not a strong showing. Some of its problems are a lack of cohesion and strong popular leadership in its ranks and it will have to address these well before the next election in four years time. One nut to crack is the number of very conservative less well educated ,poorer and old people who do not feel part of 21st century, fast moving, dealing and money making Hong Kong and whose natural habitat is therefore the pro-Beijing and mainland grouping. There are more of them than many might think. There are also a lot more greater China or at least keep-Beijing happy enthusiasts in all walks of life than make themselves known or are visible on the surface. The same was true in colonial days when there was a lot of unspoken pro-Beijing and anti-British sentiment amongst the general population than was generally acknowledged.
Both of the former "big powers" also seem to be having democracy problems. In the USA the Republican Mitt Romney struggles through a mouthful of feet to gain credibility and traction. He plays well to many in America,- notably the religious right though even they are a bit confused as to where his particular brand of Godliness fits with others,- but he does not look inspiring abroad. Neither does a simple, comforting, "safe pair of hands" come readily to mind as a description of his reliabilty with nuclear buttons . His understanding of the world, its complexities, histories and cultures doesn't look impressive either. That's putting it mildly. Americans though don't seem to feel that overall they've got it too bad and especially to the inland majority what the rest of the world thinks, and even where it is, is not of great interest or concern. Many Russians on the other hand ,with Putin well dug in at the helm, probably do. think life could be a lot better. Certainly any of them not prepared to buckle under , tow the line, or work within the system must feel a deep sense of insecurity. Anyone who dares to conspicuously challenge the way things are knows they are in a high risk zone.
