A long time ago I worked with a chap who was very fond of the saying 'Be careful what you wish for it may come true', he would use this at any opportunity and would apply the term to mean good and bad thereby allowing it to fit most situations. Thinking that I had long forgotten about this phrase it suddenly appeared in my head during the early hours of the morning of the 7th May whilst I was taking the occasional opportunity to keep up with the incoming general election results. Despite mentioning my doubt in the last Blog entry about the actual outcome being a hung parliament that is what has occurred.
I must genuinely offer my congratulations to David Cameron for now being the leader of the party with the most seats, though not enough to form a majority government. My commiserations to Nick Clegg who I think actually started to believe both the propaganda from the media and his own inflated ideas of suddenly how popular he had become. Sadly, for him anyway, he now has five MP's less than he had a few short days ago so it has not been a good time for him or his party and perhaps a salutary lesson of not to believe everything he hears or reads during the run up to an election. My commiserations also go to Gordon Brown; though the Labour party has fallen to second place behind the Tories he also does not have enough seats to form a majority government.
There has been much criticism of Brown mainly headed by the media who seems to have at times a selective memory when it suits them. One of the much flaunted complaints, for example, is that taking over from Tony Blair mid-term as leader of the Labour party made him an unelected Prime Minister. Strange then that the same media forget that John Major who took over from Margaret Thatcher mid-term in November 1990 as leader of the Conservative party and thus became Prime Minister in exactly the same situation. It was to be another two years until John Major called a general election in April 1992, but I do not recall the media ever hounding him as an unelected Prime Minister. Two-faced contempt is the basic method of operation for many newspapers: monotonous newsprint filled with selective reporting and audacious bias. the popular press is a hopelessly poisoned chalice in which our politicians seem resigned to exist in.
Of the 91 seats lost by the Labour party I know there will be genuine sadness at some of the good honest and hard working MP's becoming a casualty, however there are others who are now going who frankly will not be missed and little sympathy should be spared for them. Jacqui Smith falls perhaps partly due to the expenses scandal. The first ever woman to hold the post of Home Secretary she will not be missed. Charles Clarke, yet another ex Home Secretary has been shown the door from his Norwich South seat. The problem Clarke has is his attitude, during his final months in parliament he has been a vocal critic of Gordon Brown, now that may be his right to disagree or oppose anything his political leader says but it should not be aired like dirty laundry in public, it does him [Clarke] no good as he is marked as a moaning and bitter backbencher having lost his cabinet post, it does Gordon Brown no good as being seen to have members of his own party sniping at him in public and it does the party as a whole no good. If Clarke did not like his lot then he could leave at any time, another one not to be missed. Then there are those who have not awaited their fate at the hands of the public and have fallen on their sword. Hoon and Hewitt are two who readily spring to mind and in the overall plan of things they will not be missed either.
So where do we stand at the moment. Well neither of the two main parties have enough seats to form a government. I know there are many Labour supporters who would never vote Tory but who thought to punish Gordon Brown by voting Lib Dem the result being that the Labour vote fell. So few voters agreed with the Lib Dem manifesto and policy that they have lost five seats, maybe that shows how popular [or not] proportional representation may really be with the public and though David Cameron has indeed climbed a mountain and came home with a very creditable and worthwhile result he is still short of twenty seats and now needs to find other minority parties to join with to push him over the 326 seats required to form a government and mean time the country is now in a state of limbo.
The best option [at the time of writing] is for the Tories to agree a deal with Lib Dems but by doing so in some perverse way the country has lost it's democracy. We the electorate listen to the politicians then decide who we might support on the strength of who promises what. It is open, it is above board, we know what we are being told then we make an informed decision and we vote. However, now for example, with David Cameron and Nick Clegg talking to each other in an attempt to agree a deal; future policy is now being decided and agreed in private and in secret, we the voter do not now know what is being agreed, we are not being consulted. If Cameron and Clegg do agree some deal there will be some mutual policy shift between the two parties. There could be the situation where some people who voted Conservative feel cheated as they find perhaps some of the policies they voted on have been watered down or disappeared completely. Lib Dem supporters may think themselves lucky that after coming third and losing five seats are now in some position of power sharing and decision making. They will soon become disillusioned when they find that any promise that the Tories may give to gain the agreement of support very quickly disappears.
Perhaps as in 1974 when we last had a hung parliament and a coalition it will not be long for tempers to flare, promises to be broken and support to be withdrawn and then we will do this all over again.
What is to become of Gordon Brown and the Labour party? My personal view is to let the dust settle and wait for the coalition between the Tories and the Lib Dems. Then withdraw with good grace and dignity then Gordon Brown should resign as leader of the party and there should be a leadership election. Once a new leader is found then prepare for government again quickly because as with any pact that involves Tory promises it will not be long until they are broken twisted and distorted and the Lib Dems take their ball and go home. and we are off to the polls again.
As a chap I once worked for uses to say, be careful what you wish for...............................
Sunday 9 May 2010
Sunday 2 May 2010
Elections, Earthquakes, Education and Cleavage.
Mrs F and I have been away, we have been to Germany to visit family for a short break but we are back now and looking forward to our next adventure in just under seven weeks time. Due notice has been placed on a well known social networking web site for extra staff to be recruited at Philp's Bakers in Hayle [purveyors of the finest Cornish Pasty], for the management of the Union Inn on Fore Street to order extra stocks of Rattler Cider for Mrs F and to the staff and management of The Badger Inn at Lelant that Mrs F and I will require our normal table near the window for the Carvery Lunch on Sundays. Yes dear reader it will soon be time once more for Mrs F and I to pack our chattels and proceed south to Cornwall. We are ready for Cornwall but as always we wonder if Cornwall is once again ready for us.
We are now in the midst of election fever [well alright maybe not fever] with the General Election on the 6th May, so by the next Blog entry we will have a new Government. My political leanings are perhaps well known to regular readers of the Blog but I am beginning to wonder, certainly from what I have seen and read over the last couple of weeks or so, that the three main contenders are all much the same in their vague promises. We are told, and rightly so, that hard times are ahead whoever gains power. A vast hole in the countries finances courtesy of the world recession and the way some financial institutions and banks went about their business has to be covered, indeed the country needs to be placed back on a firm footing, but how it should be done and how and where and perhaps more importantly how deep some of these cuts should be is the question and so far the answers are not forthcoming in any detail.
The Labour party seem to favour a slow and steady as she goes approach, certainly with cuts in public finances but spread over a medium term so as not to hurt everybody at the same time which may reduce public confidence. The Conservatives I understand are more for an immediate slash and burn policy, cut everything now from top to bottom and perhaps return to a Thatcherism view of it is a price worth paying to get the country back onto a more even financial footing, if you survive to come out the other end intact well done and if you don't well................
The Liberal Democrats have a secret weapon in the form of Vince Cable their treasury spokesperson. Mr Cable has the ability to put forward his case in a pleasant and measured approach. During a recent televised debate between Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable it was Cable it seemed who emerged the unofficial winner. The public appear to like both him and what he had to say that would become the proposed fiscal policy if his party won the election, but therein lies the rub, his party winning the election. One of the Liberal Democrats stated aims is in the long term to build a more liberal society however I suspect there are far too many people in this country who think society has become far too liberal already under successive Labour and Tory Governments. An often used comment about the Lib Dem's is that in fact they can say whatever they like or they think the public might wish to hear for there is a very slim chance indeed of them ever gaining power so it is all a little academic. The last true Liberal Government in this country being from 1905 to 1915 though they did take part in a coalition government from 1915 to 1922 since when there has not been a sniff of power from them.
There is much talk about there being a hung parliament with no overall working majority from either of the two main front runners and then it seems if that is the case that Nick Clegg the leader of the Lib Dems might become a King Maker. A hung parliament is fairly uncommon the last one in this country was in 1974 prior to that it was 1929, so really for all the media rhetoric I do not think that will be the final outcome when all the votes are counted. For the benefit of any new readers from Chad a Hung Parliament is a relatively new phrase to our common usage of English coming into popular use around the mid seventies and is a term to describe a minority government or even a government with a such a slim majority that relies upon other political parties by agreement to get legislation passed.
I am amused by recent comments from the world media following a senior Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi who is quoted by the Iranian press as suggesting that woman who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes. Women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, increasing [consequently] earthquakes. This sparked an outcry among many women who refuse to believe flaunting their breasts is triggering a worldwide disaster.
If the media is to believed some 200,000 women across the world, but it seems mainly in the USA, held numerous protests and one led by Jennifer McCrieght staged a 24 hour protest named Boobquake and encouraged other women to flaunt their breasts and cleavage to prove the Iranian clerics wrong. This protest carried banners proclaiming 'Cleavage for Science' which I think is fair enough but as always some protesters carried opposing banners stating 'God Hates Boobs' I am not sure what authority they may have to make that claim but I prefer Cleavage for Science, in fact I just prefer cleavage.
In the wake of this entire episode are the numerous pictures appearing of amply endowed ladies wearing very small tops with logos such as.............I Survived the Boobquake...........and.........Did the Earth Move for You. For a brief moment I had the notion of suggesting to Mrs F that she might also like to show support for her 'Sisters' in showing her ample cleavage to prove the clerics wrong. However I came to my senses in time and considered that any ensuing hospital treatment I might undergo as a direct result of this proposal may well conflict with the forthcoming trip to Cornwall so I dismissed the idea immediately.
However as always there is a postscript. Whilst Ms McCreight and her 200,000 like minded supporters were baring almost all in the name of science; on Monday morning 26th April approximately 300km off Southern Taiwan was an earthquake that measured 6.5 on the Richter scale. Ms McCreight later claimed this had nothing at all to do with her or any of her supporters in the Boobquake protest............................however somewhere in Iran I am sure I could almost hear a group of clerics sniggering to themselves.
I read today in one of the more reliable broadsheets that some families around the country are now contemplating the proposition of selling their homes or their second homes in some cases and downsizing. Is this the final consequence of a dying Labour government I wonder, is it because the recession has finally come to us all and even the most modest abode has in some cases become financially untenable; reading on however I breathe a sigh of relief to find that why this has come about, so the article informs me, is due to the increase in tuition fees at many private and public schools. This autumn for example both Eton and Winchester will increase their fees to £30,000 per year per pupil, and many other private and public schools will increase their fees proportionally.
The article reports for example that the Corporate Affairs Director for the Rugby Football Union has just put his five bedroom house on the market for £895,000 in an effort to downsize and use the balance to part fund his three children through the local private prep school at a rate of £4,065, that's £12,195 for all three per year. A 71 year old grandmother has just sold her family home in Chiswick West London for a reported £1.6m to ensure her four grandsons receive a full private education. There are other examples quoted of families selling their second homes in the South of France and the Caribbean to recoup equity to fund their children's private education.
Of course parents and grandparents may decided how and where their offspring should be educated, that is their right and one of the pleasures of living in a free and democratic society, it is their money and I assume they came by it in a fair and honest manner and so they may dispose of it how they wish. However I cannot help but feel that some of these people by bemoaning the fact that due to the increase in private education fees they are now faced with these measures are occasionally a little out of touch with the rest of us in the real world.
Perhaps I am being a little naive and perhaps this has always been the case ever since young Coley first arrived at Brookfield but I wonder what dear old Chips would make of it all..............................
We are now in the midst of election fever [well alright maybe not fever] with the General Election on the 6th May, so by the next Blog entry we will have a new Government. My political leanings are perhaps well known to regular readers of the Blog but I am beginning to wonder, certainly from what I have seen and read over the last couple of weeks or so, that the three main contenders are all much the same in their vague promises. We are told, and rightly so, that hard times are ahead whoever gains power. A vast hole in the countries finances courtesy of the world recession and the way some financial institutions and banks went about their business has to be covered, indeed the country needs to be placed back on a firm footing, but how it should be done and how and where and perhaps more importantly how deep some of these cuts should be is the question and so far the answers are not forthcoming in any detail.
The Labour party seem to favour a slow and steady as she goes approach, certainly with cuts in public finances but spread over a medium term so as not to hurt everybody at the same time which may reduce public confidence. The Conservatives I understand are more for an immediate slash and burn policy, cut everything now from top to bottom and perhaps return to a Thatcherism view of it is a price worth paying to get the country back onto a more even financial footing, if you survive to come out the other end intact well done and if you don't well................
The Liberal Democrats have a secret weapon in the form of Vince Cable their treasury spokesperson. Mr Cable has the ability to put forward his case in a pleasant and measured approach. During a recent televised debate between Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable it was Cable it seemed who emerged the unofficial winner. The public appear to like both him and what he had to say that would become the proposed fiscal policy if his party won the election, but therein lies the rub, his party winning the election. One of the Liberal Democrats stated aims is in the long term to build a more liberal society however I suspect there are far too many people in this country who think society has become far too liberal already under successive Labour and Tory Governments. An often used comment about the Lib Dem's is that in fact they can say whatever they like or they think the public might wish to hear for there is a very slim chance indeed of them ever gaining power so it is all a little academic. The last true Liberal Government in this country being from 1905 to 1915 though they did take part in a coalition government from 1915 to 1922 since when there has not been a sniff of power from them.
There is much talk about there being a hung parliament with no overall working majority from either of the two main front runners and then it seems if that is the case that Nick Clegg the leader of the Lib Dems might become a King Maker. A hung parliament is fairly uncommon the last one in this country was in 1974 prior to that it was 1929, so really for all the media rhetoric I do not think that will be the final outcome when all the votes are counted. For the benefit of any new readers from Chad a Hung Parliament is a relatively new phrase to our common usage of English coming into popular use around the mid seventies and is a term to describe a minority government or even a government with a such a slim majority that relies upon other political parties by agreement to get legislation passed.
I am amused by recent comments from the world media following a senior Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi who is quoted by the Iranian press as suggesting that woman who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes. Women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, increasing [consequently] earthquakes. This sparked an outcry among many women who refuse to believe flaunting their breasts is triggering a worldwide disaster.
If the media is to believed some 200,000 women across the world, but it seems mainly in the USA, held numerous protests and one led by Jennifer McCrieght staged a 24 hour protest named Boobquake and encouraged other women to flaunt their breasts and cleavage to prove the Iranian clerics wrong. This protest carried banners proclaiming 'Cleavage for Science' which I think is fair enough but as always some protesters carried opposing banners stating 'God Hates Boobs' I am not sure what authority they may have to make that claim but I prefer Cleavage for Science, in fact I just prefer cleavage.
In the wake of this entire episode are the numerous pictures appearing of amply endowed ladies wearing very small tops with logos such as.............I Survived the Boobquake...........and.........Did the Earth Move for You. For a brief moment I had the notion of suggesting to Mrs F that she might also like to show support for her 'Sisters' in showing her ample cleavage to prove the clerics wrong. However I came to my senses in time and considered that any ensuing hospital treatment I might undergo as a direct result of this proposal may well conflict with the forthcoming trip to Cornwall so I dismissed the idea immediately.
However as always there is a postscript. Whilst Ms McCreight and her 200,000 like minded supporters were baring almost all in the name of science; on Monday morning 26th April approximately 300km off Southern Taiwan was an earthquake that measured 6.5 on the Richter scale. Ms McCreight later claimed this had nothing at all to do with her or any of her supporters in the Boobquake protest............................however somewhere in Iran I am sure I could almost hear a group of clerics sniggering to themselves.
I read today in one of the more reliable broadsheets that some families around the country are now contemplating the proposition of selling their homes or their second homes in some cases and downsizing. Is this the final consequence of a dying Labour government I wonder, is it because the recession has finally come to us all and even the most modest abode has in some cases become financially untenable; reading on however I breathe a sigh of relief to find that why this has come about, so the article informs me, is due to the increase in tuition fees at many private and public schools. This autumn for example both Eton and Winchester will increase their fees to £30,000 per year per pupil, and many other private and public schools will increase their fees proportionally.
The article reports for example that the Corporate Affairs Director for the Rugby Football Union has just put his five bedroom house on the market for £895,000 in an effort to downsize and use the balance to part fund his three children through the local private prep school at a rate of £4,065, that's £12,195 for all three per year. A 71 year old grandmother has just sold her family home in Chiswick West London for a reported £1.6m to ensure her four grandsons receive a full private education. There are other examples quoted of families selling their second homes in the South of France and the Caribbean to recoup equity to fund their children's private education.
Of course parents and grandparents may decided how and where their offspring should be educated, that is their right and one of the pleasures of living in a free and democratic society, it is their money and I assume they came by it in a fair and honest manner and so they may dispose of it how they wish. However I cannot help but feel that some of these people by bemoaning the fact that due to the increase in private education fees they are now faced with these measures are occasionally a little out of touch with the rest of us in the real world.
Perhaps I am being a little naive and perhaps this has always been the case ever since young Coley first arrived at Brookfield but I wonder what dear old Chips would make of it all..............................
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