First the non global:
All quiet on the UK home front. Big issues and courage to the fore. As we mentioned last week ,Dave won't say whether or not he would feed GM modified food eg "Gummerburgers" to his family. Now Nick, pale faced and looking his normal unhealthy self, says he has never knowingly done so. Pity. It might have brought some colour to his cheeks, if not his always ever-so-good politics.
Since then Dave been on tne international stomp, first to Afghanistan and then to the democratic state of Khazakstan. One always worries a bit about countries whose armies goose step and wear those massive Soviet/North Korean style hats designed to make small people look bigger and more menacing. Oddly none of them are paragons of democratic virtue. Funny that. In Afghanistan he said it might have been a good idea to talk to the Taliban ten years ago. Spot on,- at last. It's a pity though that his brief awayadays in both countries will not have allowed him time off for a bit of a breather and the opportunity to get just the slightest feel for what these countries and life in them might really be like.Sadly none of Britain's tender-hefted politicians seem to go on holiday or walkabout outside Europe. Maybe they just don't realise that sweeping along in a escorted bullet proof air conditioned limos one doesn't get much of a feel of even minor normal hassles like immigration desks and people in arrivals claiming to be your driver. It's a pity as even in the local Starbucks lookalike they might learn more than they do at the ritual state refreshments over the best clarets or Arabian coffees.
George's,- or is it Jeffrey's,- speech on how Britain is going to spend its borrowed money over the next few years contained little that wasn't reheated old stuff . Only the attempts at rhetoric, some of it excruciating and transparently bad, were new material. No surprises or excitement. Many departments such as Health, Education, and International Aid are largely ring fenced so it's they the (relatively) rich that gets the pleasure and the poor (all the others) that, in the words of the song best known to students and rugby players, gets the pain . Indeed, as that song goes on, it IS the same the whole world over. Labour won't have had any problems anticipating the text which meant that Mr Balls was able to proceed with his brief pre-secripted ritual rant in reply. He did not commend this budget to the house and nor was he likely to. That was George/Jeffrey's traditional job/sign off. Then it was subsidised lunchtime.
Now to the global:
Six thousand miles away, South Africa is facing anxious times. Killings of Afrikaaner farmers, now over 1,500 of them ,continue. They are largely unreported overseas. Nelson Mandela is not looking healthy and many of his family are fighting over all aspects of his legacy,- including the political. Most menacing of the contestants is his second wife Winnie who, apart from trying to rewrite some history, is now claiming that she has never ceased to love him dearly. Her political ambitions have certainly never died and nor have her feelings about the white population. Ominously she is talking again about disappointment about the slow pace of redistribution of wealth . Read the code carefully. ITN News which , from a supine position, interviewed her this week didn't read it all. As we say, some anxious times ahead,- and not just for the white population.
The American presidential visit to South Africa ,complete the very large motorcade and supporting vehicles which the US insists on flying in wherever he goes, went smoothly and largely successfully. Surprisingly Obama has paid little attention to Africa while China has been rapidly increasing its influence throughout the continent so his announcement of a Chinese style gathering of African leaders in America next year has been well received. Some African leaders have been getting nervous about becoming too closely bound to China and to deeply into debt with it. As they will know from Tanzania and Mozambique's experiences from the 1970s they can get into a situation where one debt leads to another and combined these can only be paid off by mortgaging ever increasing percentages of natural resources and future trade to China, leaving little with which to do business with the rest of the world. It's about as comfortable as a garotte and from an economic and political standpoint has a similar effect.
The Middle East rocks on,-literally. The West's darling "Arab Spring" which it naively thought would bring some sort of western style democracy to the Arab world has in several places moved on to " Arab Autumn" and in others joined Iraq and Afghanistan in heading for " Arab Winter" . Across the region, tens , thousands and now hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflicts which have followed the structural collapse, of like them or not, formerly largely functioning states. Most of those killed have been civilians whose first priority in and for life is for them and their families to live day to day in peace and security in the safety of their homes and streets. They have never wanted to see mass carnage or the appalling destruction of personal property, houses and state infrastructure. Would the British like to live in a London or anywhere else reduced to a pile of rubble? Would almost any political ideal , particularly a foreign one ,be worth it? Our leaders still toy with "Doing Something" and the idea of sending more arms into a Syria already awash with cheap weapons where they can only add to the mayhem, killings and destruction. When the US and UK invaded a physically intact and secular Iraq to remove the admittedly odious Saddam Hussein, the cities, towns and villages of the Middle East and Gulf were functioning and most people went about their lives in safety. Since then hundreds of thousands have died and a number of the cities, towns and villages converted into not much more than piles of bricks. Normality is suspended and replaced by constant fear of dispossession, injury or death. The secular states have veered towards or become religion dominated ones. Haven't we done well?
Further afield, the knockabout world of Australian politics has had another knockabout. Three years ago the sheila Julia Gillard knifed Kevin Rudd the bloke. Now he's knifed her. Fair one might say but neither would perhaps be the electorate's favourite as leader. Neither though would be Tony Abbott the leader of the opposition. A truly democratic choice lies before the country in September 14th's General Election.
And back to the non global:
Wimbledon is into its second week. The Common Tim has of course long been replaced by the Common Andy who looks as if he is in with a chance, most of his big name rivals having slipped up in the first week. While he battles on, the nation's TV screens do overtime and many employees don't. Next week we will be back to normal but never mind, GCSE's , A Levels and University finals are over and the long summer hols with staff continuously reduced by 30-40 % from mid July until early September beckon. For our elected representatives life is tougher. They have to put up with an even longer break until they really get going again. By then the 2015 General Election will only be 18 months away so maybe things will start to be less quiet and we will start to see some action or at least talk, their prefered option, on the real big issues .Whether or not anyone does or does not eat GM food may seem less important.
