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I have been trying to think of any major program or initiative which this government has proposed which has come to a successful conclusion and so far I have failed.
Education, the NHS, Law and Order, police reform, welfare and benefits. None of these have really shown the improvements we were told would happen. And on top of that, we are involved in the disasters of Iraq and possibly Afghanistan with now an unpopular stance vis-a-vis Israel. The Daily Telegraph yougov poll must make dismal reading for our government, that is if Tony reads the papers on holiday, and the Israelis.
And many things are unravelling. The target of 50% of school leavers going to university has not been reached as young people have realised that many degrees are not worth the paper they are printed on. Far from guaranteeing better jobs, they are only guaranteed a large debt. For all the money poured in, education standards have improved only slightly.
The NHS was at one time underfunded by comparison with other countries, but with massive extra money it still does not compare for service with some European neighbours. By fudging the true cost of capital spending in PPP deals and the like, Gordon Brown has actually diverted those extra funds into paying the private partners’ dividends.
And recently it would seem that all sorts of government plans are being rolled back.
I have just been watching BBC Newsnight. The only person who seemed remotely connected to this planet was Terry Waite. His argument was similar to my own. Give the areas surrounding Israel some degree of prosperity, stop persecuting the ordinary populations of Gaza and the West Bank and there might be some hope of isolating the extremists.
For Malcolm Rifkind MP to talk about a stabilisation force in South Lebanon is fantasy island stuff. Do they fight their way in or are they expecting Hezbollah is throw them a welcome party?
Meanwhile I am appalled at the seeming total indifference to the suffering and destruction.
I have to say that whatever the rights and wrongs of the present confrontation between Israel and Lebanon, it is a human tragedy.
But what I do ask is why no one on either side seems to understand that nobody ever wins a war. They may appear to but unless they also win the peace it will only flare up again. Contrast the treatment of Germany after World War I with the Marshall plan after World War II.
The only chance for Israel to live in peace is for her Palestian neighbours to have money poured into them to give them similar prosperity. Do that and the majority will not want to jeopardise that by encouraging extremists. Every bullet and ever bomb smashing into Gaza is postponing peace and recruiting more fanatics. Hamas and Hezbollah in the North will never run out of recruits.
The claim by a British government minister that the evacuation of people from Lebanon will be the largest since Dunkirk has already been refuted in a letter to the Daily Telegraph.
More to the point, is this not just typical of the spin and hyperbole which every utterance from this government is laden with. It cannot possibly add to the sum of useful knowledge. Furthermore, can you really compare the rescue of 300,000 troops from shell and bomb torn beaches with the orderly collection of at most perhaps 10 to 20,000 civilians.
It is perhaps as well that in 1940 the rescue took precedence over PR and spin, because the rate at which the present operation is going would have meant that troops were still leaving Dunkirk as others were coming ashore in the Normandy Landings!
The decision by BAe to sell it shares in the Airbus epitomises a major fault line in the British way of doing business. This decision will no doubt benefit shareholders and thus directors at least in the short term, but Spain has already signalled its intention to buy a bigger stake in the Airbus with a view to gaining more contracts. BAe will almost certainly lose out in the next contract round. This will not perhaps affect the company balance sheet but will mean a loss of skills in this nation.
British investors will possibly put money into Spanish companies making Airbus parts and will therefore be part of the action. All of them are no doubt very patriotic, but seem oblivious to the fact that, in this case, short term gain will mean a nation’s long term loss. Money and profit speak louder than community and national pride and solidarity.
Welcome to my second blog. You can read my first blog
here.
