Radio Four 'Thought for the day' this morning appeared to be a partly political broadcast on behalf of the 'let my people go party' as he spoke about having history books written in a foreign place and accents being the source of humour and mocking. Still it's nice to know that he's concerned with the lives of Brummies (whose accent came top in a 'worst' UK accent poll), Scousers, Geordies and Cockneys.
Divine rights and pops at 'Rule Britannia' served neither man or God - just Bell. Mind you he did give me a thought for the day - I just have to try to forget it and repent of having had it!
Still it was fun to hear an MP get taken apart by Countryside Alliance's David Taylor regarding shotgun licences for youngsters and (non-existent) crime, challenging to hear that the cuts in the numbers of redundancies amongst the Gurkhas might be the result of the changes in their pay, conditions and pensions thanks to the Gurkha Justice Campaign and mildly amusing (and applause-generating) to hear how (the other) Milliband is set to face down the unions (remember them, they put him in) and make a stand for commonsense. I was beginning to worry that without Grommet he was going to be in a weakened state but obviously not.
Lots to think about and load of prayer fodder.
Happy Wednesday!
Showing posts with label milliband. Show all posts
Showing posts with label milliband. Show all posts
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Amnesia - a political necessity
Listening to the other Milliband yesterday I found myself wondering just how fast John Smith, Kier Hardie and William Beveridge were spinning in their graves. I also had a fleeting question over whether Ed was merely acting as warm-up man for David, an apparently better choice for leader than him (wonder if the unions are thinking that too. Always a problem when the block vote brings in the man you later realise you didn't want.)
I was amazed to discover that Labour are the panacea to all our financial ills, especially as it was the same Labour government that Mr Milliband was part of, whose financial mismanagement brought us to the place where many BaE employees lost their jobs as he was preparing to speak.
I was stunned to hear that we were going to reward the 'right people'. I really enjoyed the bit about, "An economy and a society too often rewarding not the right people with the right values, but the wrong people with the wrong values." and wondered where all those, excessively expensive PFI projects and the many Quangos and the like that came into being under Labour fitted in this assessment.
Mind you, those who wish to emulate Peter Rachman (for those of you who aren't familiar with the name, he was the king of the slum landlord with menaces business in the fifties and early sixties) will be taking heart as the threat of social housing only being given to 'approved' people. Always good when we can marginalise and people group, helps when we want to dehumanise them and later take them off to places from whence they never return (Holocaust Memorial Day 27th January).
I did agree that we are in the midst of a crisis that results from the promises made over the past thirty years and see the problems as a combination of greed, self coupled with the decline of the religious moral codes that previously shaped our nation.
Still, if we ignore everything about Labour's last go at governing and if Billy and Johnny (AKA David and Nick) can do enough wrong things, Labour might just get in next time around.
Now that's as frightening a thought as either of the present incumbents in government winning, isn't it?
Happy Wednesday.
I was amazed to discover that Labour are the panacea to all our financial ills, especially as it was the same Labour government that Mr Milliband was part of, whose financial mismanagement brought us to the place where many BaE employees lost their jobs as he was preparing to speak.
I was stunned to hear that we were going to reward the 'right people'. I really enjoyed the bit about, "An economy and a society too often rewarding not the right people with the right values, but the wrong people with the wrong values." and wondered where all those, excessively expensive PFI projects and the many Quangos and the like that came into being under Labour fitted in this assessment.
Mind you, those who wish to emulate Peter Rachman (for those of you who aren't familiar with the name, he was the king of the slum landlord with menaces business in the fifties and early sixties) will be taking heart as the threat of social housing only being given to 'approved' people. Always good when we can marginalise and people group, helps when we want to dehumanise them and later take them off to places from whence they never return (Holocaust Memorial Day 27th January).
I did agree that we are in the midst of a crisis that results from the promises made over the past thirty years and see the problems as a combination of greed, self coupled with the decline of the religious moral codes that previously shaped our nation.
Still, if we ignore everything about Labour's last go at governing and if Billy and Johnny (AKA David and Nick) can do enough wrong things, Labour might just get in next time around.
Now that's as frightening a thought as either of the present incumbents in government winning, isn't it?
Happy Wednesday.
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Milliband says, "Go for broke."
Labour leader, Ed Milliband (or is it David?) urges the government to 'Go for broke'.
Amazing advice, after all, isn't that what Lanour did when they were in power and isn't this what contributed to draw us into the current austerity measures?
But at least Labour are consistent. What we need (apparently) is some advice from their finance chap, Yes indeedy - next on the agenda? It's Balls ;-)
Happy Sunday (unless you're Scottish and like Rugger).
Pax
Amazing advice, after all, isn't that what Lanour did when they were in power and isn't this what contributed to draw us into the current austerity measures?
But at least Labour are consistent. What we need (apparently) is some advice from their finance chap, Yes indeedy - next on the agenda? It's Balls ;-)
Happy Sunday (unless you're Scottish and like Rugger).
Pax
Saturday, 26 March 2011
March against the cuts
Today is promised to be the day we get the biggest demonstration London has ever seen. It will dwarf the march against the Iraq war and will be even bigger than the Poll Tax march (and riots?) as people flock to the city to protest against the cuts.
Grannies from cosy little Gloucestershire villages with their blue rinses and placards calling for library cuts will be rubbing shoulders with scruffy squatters, political activists, trade unionists and of course politicians.
The problem is that whilst there was an issue of morality and legality surrounding the Iraq march and a sense of injustice behind the Poll Tax, this march has little in terms of moral ground to support it. The very fact that Ed Milliband will be the speaker when the party arrives at Hyde Park seem to me to proclaim the absurdity and the lack of integrity and morality that this march demonstrates and I'm not doing a 'disgusted of Sutton' here but have some concrete reasons.
The first is that the hypocrisy that exists in having the leader of the very party whose mismanagement of the economy, assisted by their lack of control of the banking fraternity, and under whose reign the distance between rich and poor grew markedly, who brought in such abominations as Academies (where our children's futures are given to others as a money-making exercise) and engaged in the PFI, sacked nurses and porters and established more quangos and more scandals beside, do the main speech. If he's going to say he's sorry for the government of which he was a member having brought us to this place then all is well, but he (and those present I'm sure) will forget how we got here. All many want is for the cuts to hit someone (and something) else - there is little moral ground, only self being exercised by many here.
We do need to make our voices heard and indeed we do need to be campaigning is for things like libraries, social care, education, health and the like. There are many cuts that I feel aggrieved about but I am also aware that those who come to London today are also being conned into being something political that perhaps they don't want to be. My fear is that some will be caught up in stuff that isn't what they are or why they are there, and this is a sadness and a shame.
My last concern is that whilst many moderate people will be present today, behind them will be the same wallies who turned the student loan protests into the chaos that they became are seeing in today the potential for more than a 'carnival like' gathering of people engaged in being what democracy is.
All sides of the house of commons recognise that we need cuts. Everyone has a different idea about where and what and how but the reality is that we were (and actually if you listen to some economists, still are) on the edge of financial disaster. Unlike Greece, Ireland, Portugal (and Spain close by) we are making moves which are painful but necessary. Where I disagree I canvas and harry, perhaps rather than march in London we need to be active where we are as individuals and church groups - being the noise locally and continuously rather than one big bang!
Pax
Grannies from cosy little Gloucestershire villages with their blue rinses and placards calling for library cuts will be rubbing shoulders with scruffy squatters, political activists, trade unionists and of course politicians.
The problem is that whilst there was an issue of morality and legality surrounding the Iraq march and a sense of injustice behind the Poll Tax, this march has little in terms of moral ground to support it. The very fact that Ed Milliband will be the speaker when the party arrives at Hyde Park seem to me to proclaim the absurdity and the lack of integrity and morality that this march demonstrates and I'm not doing a 'disgusted of Sutton' here but have some concrete reasons.
The first is that the hypocrisy that exists in having the leader of the very party whose mismanagement of the economy, assisted by their lack of control of the banking fraternity, and under whose reign the distance between rich and poor grew markedly, who brought in such abominations as Academies (where our children's futures are given to others as a money-making exercise) and engaged in the PFI, sacked nurses and porters and established more quangos and more scandals beside, do the main speech. If he's going to say he's sorry for the government of which he was a member having brought us to this place then all is well, but he (and those present I'm sure) will forget how we got here. All many want is for the cuts to hit someone (and something) else - there is little moral ground, only self being exercised by many here.
We do need to make our voices heard and indeed we do need to be campaigning is for things like libraries, social care, education, health and the like. There are many cuts that I feel aggrieved about but I am also aware that those who come to London today are also being conned into being something political that perhaps they don't want to be. My fear is that some will be caught up in stuff that isn't what they are or why they are there, and this is a sadness and a shame.
My last concern is that whilst many moderate people will be present today, behind them will be the same wallies who turned the student loan protests into the chaos that they became are seeing in today the potential for more than a 'carnival like' gathering of people engaged in being what democracy is.
All sides of the house of commons recognise that we need cuts. Everyone has a different idea about where and what and how but the reality is that we were (and actually if you listen to some economists, still are) on the edge of financial disaster. Unlike Greece, Ireland, Portugal (and Spain close by) we are making moves which are painful but necessary. Where I disagree I canvas and harry, perhaps rather than march in London we need to be active where we are as individuals and church groups - being the noise locally and continuously rather than one big bang!
Pax
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