Sanity in the USA

The re-election of President Obama is a victory for common sense.  It is not that he is a perfect politican and therefore deserved to be re-elected without opposition.  It is that the opposition was so detached from reality, so racist and misogynist, so self-serving as to be a parody of the "conservative" and "Republican" traditions.

Even the celebrating Democrats are hoping it will lead to re-emergence of a more rational debate in which truth and facts (such as abortion and evolution) are not treated as opinions.

I hope that the UK Conservative party, who appear to have learned a lot from recent Republican strategies learn something from this election (and not just that you can do very well if you gerrymander the boundaries) and we start to have rational politics again too.

My particular bug bear (though I have many) is the immigration policy that isolates us from genuine students, with their skills, ambition, contacts and (rather importantly these days) money.  When even the Economist calls a policy crazy you have to consider your views if you claim to be a rational pro-business party.

 

after the gold rush

Well done to Andy Murray for wining the US Open Tennis, his first grand slam.  We are in the brief period between a golden summer and resumption of a gruelling winter of football.  But what a summer.  The Tour de France, the Olympics and Paralympics, Andy Murray.

There has a been a spring in the step of Brits this summer, when it finally dawned that Olympics was not going to be a fiasco but was going to be brilliant.

I wonder if there will now be a political knock on?  The coalition themes of broken Britain, a can-do-nothing country, with all of our glories in the past seem completely out of step with how Britain feels at the moment.  The coalition has traded on misery to excuse any policies they think appropriate.  I wonder if these policies will be accepted in can-do, after the goldrush Britain.

Banks

It is not just Barclays illegally colluding to fix bank rates. The same is going on in the USA.

When are people going to get jail time for this rather than just corporate fines, that customers end up paying? Jail is the deterrent, not the loss of a bonus.

After the collapse of the banking system why has no one been charged with fraud? It is about time.

Bonfire of the Dictators

Kim jong-il is added to the role call of dicators who have gone in 2011.  The attendance at the evil dictators club meetings is going to be significantly reduced without Kim, Gadaffi, and Mubarak.  It is too much to hope that Mugabe will soon be missing meetings too?

Summer's gone

2 days back at school, and it feels like autumn. And what is with the need for Astronauts costumes?

The link about covers my views on the US Republican party - see here

Idiot

Prime Minister David Cameron used the Today programme to decry the idea of Gordon Brown becoming Managing Director of the IMF. He then suggested that it was time for someone from the developing economies to take the role.

I have never come across such a piece of self serving, and UK damaging nonsense. David Cameron used to complain bitterly about the decline of UK influence in the world, and now he seeks to give it away so that he can stick the boot into his predessor. He is using Britain's prestige as a tool for narrow political advantage.

I am sure that he genuinely feels Brown is not the man for the job. However how can it be in Britain's interest to give away a key global role for no gain? A Brit in the job, even the wrong man, at least has some interest in the country doing well.

The Tories have previous on this. Out of spite they have attacked Tony Blair bidding to become European President, and the appointment of a Brit as de facto head of European Foreign Policy. Because they were from the Labour Party. As if having a British President of Europe would not have reflected well on the country. Other countries are sensible enough to realise that politics should stop at the border. In their disdain for anyone who is not exactly like them the Tories have shown their contempt for the whole country of Great Britain. These are the people who have talked of it not mattering if they have no presence in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland because of their majority in England. Forgetting that they are supposed to be a Unionist party, and not an English party.

They should put aside their hatred of Labour, and look to the good of the country. As opposed to just the bits of it that they own.

all political careers end in failure

I wonder if we can add Prime Minister Berlesconi and Colnel Gadaffi to the list of people contemplating them message?

4 gym sessions, ice skating and swimming in a week. I may be old, decrepit and skint, but at least I can try to do something about the decrepit bit.

The American Constitution

I'm a Brit, so I don't always understand American Culture - but I've become strangely interested in the logic of the Tea Party and other Republicans who have a fixation on the American Constitution. From here, in the land they broke away from to write the constitution (by a bunch of slave owners with holes in the ground for toilets as pointed out by Scott Adams of Dilbert), there seems to have a lot of people who believe all the answers and authority of the US government lies in the constitution as originally written. Now they have Amended the constitution. Does that mean the Tea Party think that all the Amendments should be withdrawn? Or do they accept the amendments? In which case their whole argument collapses (because obviously the original constitution was not perfect, and there is no obvious reason why the current version should be either). Just asking. It confuses me.
I am used to people having holes in their political beliefs (says a guy who is apparently to the left of 98% of the population on social matters, and to the right of 90% on economic matters) - but this seems more aligned with the views taken by religous cults than real politics.


In the UK we avoid this by not having a written constitution, which allows our politicians to make things up as they go along. Note that this doesn't seem to work either.
At some stage I shall get exercised by the government deciding that we can have an extra MEP, but not bothering to going to all the trouble and expense of holding an election - just appointing a Tory off the Midlands list. That is the sort of thing you expect in Egypt! Oh, we could have had an election but it would have cost money, so we decided not to bother...
Even if it is perfectly legal it shows a disregard for the democratic process which is staggering. As did the attempted coup when they pushed for a fixed term government that could not be defeated by a majority of the House of Commons but only a majority +5%. Again, in most countries we call that fixing the parliament.

Oh apparently I am going to rant about it now. Sorry.