You can't have it all. So far the 2013 Spring hasn't really happened,- more of a continuation of winter most of the time. With June only days away the appearance of some warm ( if behind your windbreaks) sun has been welcome and an almost unusual backdrop to the second Bank (ie public) Holiday of the month. This one is doubly significant as it leads straight into the half term week, another "works shutdown" for a UK plc almost exhausted by the long run of unrelenting toil since the Easter holidays all of six weeks ago. Never mind, we will soon be into the summer social sporting and corporate hospitality season of Ascot, Wimbledon and Henley which will see us nearly into the summer hols proper.
So how are we doing and how's our world?
Very sadly the week was dominated by the shooting of an off duty soldier by a couple of deluded religious extremists acting it seems alone in isolation from any group. The one off grouping or hit man is the most difficult thing to detect or predict. There are disaffected people everywhere,- and not just in Britain. Some express themselves noisily but others sit and smoulder and in most cases do nothing. A tiny percentage though will be insane enough to believe that killing people will in some way advance their cause or even gain them eternal redemption for their other deficiencies. That's what happened this week .Inevitably baying tabloid media and self-appointed pundits spent a lot of column inches and air time saying why didn't the security services detect this one coming? The answer is of course that a 100% success rate is impossible and the fact that these incidents are so few and far between is a testimony to a 99.99% sucess rate nevertheless.
Inevitably included in the response are calls from political opportunists, led by the Home Secretary, Theresa May, to revive the recently abandoned and potentially highly repressive measures contained in the Communications Data Bill. These , widely condemned by free speech supporters at home and abroad , would have given the government, any government, the right to access almost any electronic communication of any sort. It's the kind of thing that could be expected and would be condemned here if the country concerned were Russia, Zimbabwe or almost anywhere but the UK. Even if benign in initial intention ,it is capable of being used and misused by less scrupulous governments in the future and as such is highly dangerous. The fact that the idea is supported by both the left and right wings of the UK's political parties should be warning enough and for once the LibDems are right in opposing the Bill. It is likely that they will be overwhelmed by an unusual and unholy alliance of the Conservative and Labour parties, the leadership of both being apparently impervious to what it means for the underlying character of the British way of life.
Before this incident took over the headlines and the inner pages, the politicians, ever keen to avoid the top slot in the baddies of the day stakes, had been labelling approbrium on the evil tax- evading,- ie minimising,- global nationals. Much to the relief of many in the Canary Wharf and City banking areas Starbucks had enjoyed a spell in the dock a few months ago and been named and shamed as really bad people. That got expenses-laden politicians off the hook too. They hadn't been enjoying being below estate agents and bankers in the national trust tables. The offshore global betheren hadn't broken the law,- something created by politicians and contained in about 17,000 obviously clear and concise pages of tax rules and formulae,- but just done their duty to their shareholders , customers and employees by not spending money where they didn't need to. Like most , Starbucks had though created thousands of jobs in Britain, all occupied by people who paid tax and usefully with any left over bought goods and services which employed other people who then also paid tax, weren't on the dole.... and so on. They had created a product people wanted to buy, trained their staff well and given many a launch pad into other things, but the evil so-and -sos had not paid more in tax than the 17,000 pages said they might if they were actually worded differently. This week it has been Google's turn in the dock. Again they have created new jobs for a large numbers of people in the country, are a good and even fun employer, are investing over £1 building in a new HQ and generally pouring megapounds into the economy, while perfectly legally paying corporation tax in Ireland where it's lower. "Unfair, foul, we need EU or global agreements to stop this kind of thing happening". "I will raise it at G8 " says brave, fearless David Cameron scenting a popular and emotional winner. This is the same David Cameron who a few weeks ago was urging French businesses to move their head offices to the UK to avoid new and punitive taxes at home. That, it seems, was fair game. The Irish doing it to the UK is not. Have we missed something,- and might not the Irish anyway have got it right with a low business tax regime? Isn't that where we should all be heading to leave more money in companies' and peoples' pockets to invest or spend to expand the economy?
Anyway, so as to get away before the weekend holiday rush ,Parliament shut down again on Tuesday afternoon. Nothing to do with avoiding having a Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday of course or actually not having a lot to do now much of the legislation factory has moved across the North Sea to Brussels. Cameron sensibly headed for the airport, ignoring howls of "How could he when we are under attack from terrorists"? from the learned tabloids and others. We should be grateful that he went. We need our leaders , such as they are, fresh and not exhausted from having to be on the bridge in all kind of foul weather. They'd always be there and too befuddled to see or do anything about the future. With state of the art communications systems,- and we can be sure he isn't marooned with just an old bedside or hallway telephone, -he is hardly out of the picture. His choice of destination, the familiar Ibiza, is though a bit unimaginative and disappointing. OK, it has pretty much guaranteed warmth and sunshine, beaches and good food and drink and it isn't far away in case a dash back is really needed and there's no jetlag involved . Wouldn't though a family saunter around say Singapore, a pleasant and easy introduction to modern ,thriving, prosperous, hard working, everything working, Asia have been more thought provoking and educational? We would add Bangkok, but for any politician that is probably a risk too far. Just think of the opportunities for photographers: "Just stand in front of that door a minute Mr Cameron". A trip to at least Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai in should be compulsory for all Britain's and indeed the EU's politicians. If the absence of that, their sunlounger reading on their Kindles should be the guide to Hong Kong's flat rate tax law.
One thing Dave will have missed as he headed off to the sun was the UEFA Cup Final at Wembley between the German teams Bayern Munich and Dortmund. Maybe he wasn't invited but maybe he watched it on TV? If he didn't he should have, as should Messrs Miliband/E and Clegg. Not for the game,- they could have skipped that if they weren't interested,- but for the bit at the end when the 2 teams climbed the Everest-like steps to the presentation box high in the stadium, itself no mean feat after 90 minutes on the pitch. There was Angela Merkel, relaxed, genuinely joyful, chatting easily and naturally with all around her and the teams and officials as they came up. Could any of our wooden leaders looked so spontaneous, human and really rather than patronisingly glad to be there? For some reason they all seem to have enormous difficulty in presenting themselves as real citizens of planet earth beyond selected areas of London and their allied country retreats. If the Germans throw her out in this year's elections perhaps we could offer her a contract. We are happy with European football managers so why not a country manager?
So how are we doing and how's our world?
Very sadly the week was dominated by the shooting of an off duty soldier by a couple of deluded religious extremists acting it seems alone in isolation from any group. The one off grouping or hit man is the most difficult thing to detect or predict. There are disaffected people everywhere,- and not just in Britain. Some express themselves noisily but others sit and smoulder and in most cases do nothing. A tiny percentage though will be insane enough to believe that killing people will in some way advance their cause or even gain them eternal redemption for their other deficiencies. That's what happened this week .Inevitably baying tabloid media and self-appointed pundits spent a lot of column inches and air time saying why didn't the security services detect this one coming? The answer is of course that a 100% success rate is impossible and the fact that these incidents are so few and far between is a testimony to a 99.99% sucess rate nevertheless.
Inevitably included in the response are calls from political opportunists, led by the Home Secretary, Theresa May, to revive the recently abandoned and potentially highly repressive measures contained in the Communications Data Bill. These , widely condemned by free speech supporters at home and abroad , would have given the government, any government, the right to access almost any electronic communication of any sort. It's the kind of thing that could be expected and would be condemned here if the country concerned were Russia, Zimbabwe or almost anywhere but the UK. Even if benign in initial intention ,it is capable of being used and misused by less scrupulous governments in the future and as such is highly dangerous. The fact that the idea is supported by both the left and right wings of the UK's political parties should be warning enough and for once the LibDems are right in opposing the Bill. It is likely that they will be overwhelmed by an unusual and unholy alliance of the Conservative and Labour parties, the leadership of both being apparently impervious to what it means for the underlying character of the British way of life.
Before this incident took over the headlines and the inner pages, the politicians, ever keen to avoid the top slot in the baddies of the day stakes, had been labelling approbrium on the evil tax- evading,- ie minimising,- global nationals. Much to the relief of many in the Canary Wharf and City banking areas Starbucks had enjoyed a spell in the dock a few months ago and been named and shamed as really bad people. That got expenses-laden politicians off the hook too. They hadn't been enjoying being below estate agents and bankers in the national trust tables. The offshore global betheren hadn't broken the law,- something created by politicians and contained in about 17,000 obviously clear and concise pages of tax rules and formulae,- but just done their duty to their shareholders , customers and employees by not spending money where they didn't need to. Like most , Starbucks had though created thousands of jobs in Britain, all occupied by people who paid tax and usefully with any left over bought goods and services which employed other people who then also paid tax, weren't on the dole.... and so on. They had created a product people wanted to buy, trained their staff well and given many a launch pad into other things, but the evil so-and -sos had not paid more in tax than the 17,000 pages said they might if they were actually worded differently. This week it has been Google's turn in the dock. Again they have created new jobs for a large numbers of people in the country, are a good and even fun employer, are investing over £1 building in a new HQ and generally pouring megapounds into the economy, while perfectly legally paying corporation tax in Ireland where it's lower. "Unfair, foul, we need EU or global agreements to stop this kind of thing happening". "I will raise it at G8 " says brave, fearless David Cameron scenting a popular and emotional winner. This is the same David Cameron who a few weeks ago was urging French businesses to move their head offices to the UK to avoid new and punitive taxes at home. That, it seems, was fair game. The Irish doing it to the UK is not. Have we missed something,- and might not the Irish anyway have got it right with a low business tax regime? Isn't that where we should all be heading to leave more money in companies' and peoples' pockets to invest or spend to expand the economy?
Anyway, so as to get away before the weekend holiday rush ,Parliament shut down again on Tuesday afternoon. Nothing to do with avoiding having a Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday of course or actually not having a lot to do now much of the legislation factory has moved across the North Sea to Brussels. Cameron sensibly headed for the airport, ignoring howls of "How could he when we are under attack from terrorists"? from the learned tabloids and others. We should be grateful that he went. We need our leaders , such as they are, fresh and not exhausted from having to be on the bridge in all kind of foul weather. They'd always be there and too befuddled to see or do anything about the future. With state of the art communications systems,- and we can be sure he isn't marooned with just an old bedside or hallway telephone, -he is hardly out of the picture. His choice of destination, the familiar Ibiza, is though a bit unimaginative and disappointing. OK, it has pretty much guaranteed warmth and sunshine, beaches and good food and drink and it isn't far away in case a dash back is really needed and there's no jetlag involved . Wouldn't though a family saunter around say Singapore, a pleasant and easy introduction to modern ,thriving, prosperous, hard working, everything working, Asia have been more thought provoking and educational? We would add Bangkok, but for any politician that is probably a risk too far. Just think of the opportunities for photographers: "Just stand in front of that door a minute Mr Cameron". A trip to at least Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai in should be compulsory for all Britain's and indeed the EU's politicians. If the absence of that, their sunlounger reading on their Kindles should be the guide to Hong Kong's flat rate tax law.
One thing Dave will have missed as he headed off to the sun was the UEFA Cup Final at Wembley between the German teams Bayern Munich and Dortmund. Maybe he wasn't invited but maybe he watched it on TV? If he didn't he should have, as should Messrs Miliband/E and Clegg. Not for the game,- they could have skipped that if they weren't interested,- but for the bit at the end when the 2 teams climbed the Everest-like steps to the presentation box high in the stadium, itself no mean feat after 90 minutes on the pitch. There was Angela Merkel, relaxed, genuinely joyful, chatting easily and naturally with all around her and the teams and officials as they came up. Could any of our wooden leaders looked so spontaneous, human and really rather than patronisingly glad to be there? For some reason they all seem to have enormous difficulty in presenting themselves as real citizens of planet earth beyond selected areas of London and their allied country retreats. If the Germans throw her out in this year's elections perhaps we could offer her a contract. We are happy with European football managers so why not a country manager?
