We're Number 37!

Another YouTube video about the American Healthcare Debate. I suppose the NHS in the UK "could do better", but we do get our system for around half the percentage of GDP that the Americans do.

The French pay 11% of GDP for their highly regarded set-up compared to 8% in Britain.

Greed is Good?

Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in the 1980s assured us that "Greed is Good!", but I'm not sure how many victims of the current global financial crisis would agree with him. Personally, I think much of the responsibility for the state of the World lies with each of us individually. The general population, particularly in the US and UK grew addicted over the years to easy credit, and a "buy now pay (maybe) later" mentality. How anyone could have thought that a position where personal debt in the UK exceeded the GDP of the country was sustainable I do not know! The situation where someone in the South East of England could earn more from the rise in the value of their house in a year than they could from their job clearly could not continue for long!

There is no doubt, however, that people in general, and politicians in particular, would like to make out that it was those greedy senior bankers that got us into this mess. The furore over bonus payments, particularly for RBS employees, has been closely followed by equally impotent rage over the pension that Fred Goodwin is apparently going to receive: £693,000 a year!

It is easy to take pleasure in watching Goodwin squirm when quizzed about his pension by the Commons Treasury Select Committee. Many people would like to see him suffer in a much more painful and prolonged way. However, at the end of the day, Goodwin and his cronies were really only doing what their shareholders wanted: trying to make them (even) more money.

As Lao-tzu, the Chinese Philosopher, said:

"There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.
There is no greater guilt than discontentment.
And there is no greater disaster than greed."

What Next?

Further to my last post, it seems the Government now feels the need to record on a database every trip that I make! Without any consultation, as far as I am aware, computerised records of all 250 million journeys made by individuals in and out of the UK each year will be kept for up to 10 years!

As far as I am concerned, if this is the price we have to pay to try and ensure absolute security, the terrorists have already won the war...

The Milk of Human Kindness

Went with Wosog and Gdog to see the brilliant film "Milk" yesterday. Sean Penn's performance was breathtaking as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to achieve public office in the US. Harvey Milk has a pretty large Wikipedia entry even though I, and I suspect most Brits, had never heard of him before now. Scanning through it, it seems the film was a pretty accurate portrayal of his life, though I believe he had a reputation for being bad tempered that was not reflected in the screenplay. Acceptance of gay people has come a long way since then, in the UK and the US, but the Internet Move Database Entry on the film still recounts someone's experience of watching the film in a cinema where the audience cheered when Milk was shot and booed the film at the end. I suspect ignorance and bigotry will, sadly, always be with us.

The dramatisation of Milk's success gives the achievement of relatively minor public office almost the feeling of a presidential race. Barack Obama's success in actually gaining the presidency is several orders of magnitude more impressive. It carries at least as great a significance for the non-whites of America as Milk's accomplishment did for his gay constituents. It is important to remember that, although Obama achieved 365 electoral votes versus McCain's 173, only 53% of the electorate voted for him. Some members of that 53% are even less happy about having a black man in the White House than that cinema audience were about Milk's lifestyle.

America has a sad history of assassinations, and I fervently hope that Barack Obama survives to enjoy the fruits of his success....

Learning the Lessons of History

Thanks to The Huffington Post for pointing me in the direction of this video. Given the lack of evidence for overall benefit from the US-led military intervention in Iraq, it amazes me that right-wingers in America can even suggest a military strike against Iran.

The video reminds us that the UK and the USA have previously interfered with the government of Iran. Then it was supposed to have the aim of stemming the march of Communism, but it was really about oil and money. This time it's supposed to be about preventing the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (does that sound familiar to you?), but again it's really about oil and money.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

Snouts in the Trough

Regular readers of this blog (if there are any) will know that I am not a great fan of politicians. Any of you living in the UK cannot have failed to be aware of the case of Tory MP Derek Conway who paid his student son £40,000 of taxpayers' money for, it seems, rather ill-defined work to do with his parliamentary duties. Conway has been suspended from the Commons for 10 days and ordered to return £13,161 of the money he paid his son. According to this article, he claims that he is "not a crook", and says that numerous other MPs are doing very similar things. Another wonderful quotation from the non-crook is "A lot of students do part-time work. He was working for his father rather than working in McDonald's.". I wonder how many student workers in McDonalds are paid £40,000 per year?

Gordon Brown must be quite enjoying Mr Conway's discomfiture, which has successfully diverted media attention from the various Labour scandals about undeclared campaign contributions, although I see the same article mentions the fact that former cabinet minister Peter Hain has been claiming that his 80 year old mother works for him as a part-time secretary and she was paid £5,400 last year. You really do wonder what other amazing revelations are going to crawl out now that the MPs' Expenses can of worms has been prised open!

Recently, we had the unedifying spectacle of MPs apparently agonising over whether or not to give themselves a sub-inflationary pay award this year---like the ones they were expecting other public sector workers to swallow. They finally seemed to accept that not to do so could have very serious consequences. If these are the sort of fiddles they get up to with their expenses, though, you can see why they could afford to be so magnanimous!

We are regularly told that politics in the UK is much less corrupt than in many other countries. I wonder if it's more the case that we are a bit more subtle about our corruption in Britain?

It Makes You Think 1

I've always loved quotations, and I've planned for a while to post occasional quotations that hopefully will provoke thought, and entertain at the same time. I recently came across this quotation, and I wasn't sure if I should call this post "Our Wonderful Political Readers 2" as a sequel to the preceding post about the up-and-coming American Election.

The statement is from US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, just to show that, even if we have reservations about our future World leaders we can have confidence in the current administration:

"I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started."

There, that made you think, didn't it?

Our Wonderful Political Leaders

I don't know as much as I probably should about American politics, but I think I know enough to be sure I would vote for the Democrats. That said, I don't think I trust Hilary Clinton with her annoying cackle. I like what I have seen of Barack Obama, although I think he is a little naive when pinned down to specifics.

Just as I would never vote for the Conservative Party in this country, I suspect I would never vote Republican in the US. Apart from their right-wing views the Republicans also have the major turn-off (from my point-of-view) of rampant religious fundamentalism. It may not be politically correct to say it, but the idea of having a Mormon American President in the form of Mitt Romney fills me with horror. I am put off Mike Huckabee for two reasons: firstly by his known illiberal views; and secondly by evidence to suggest that he may be an idiot:



But don't think I reserve my scorn for US politicians. At the moment, I don't think there is any UK political party I would vote for!

Save the Vale

Public Opinion
Originally uploaded by Son of Groucho.

Today I and over 10,000 others attended a protest regarding the proposal by NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to downgrade severely the services provided at the Vale of Leven Hospital. The hospital has had its services reduced over several years first by Argyll & Clyde Health Board and latterly by NHS GG&C. Many in the local population feel that if further cuts are made this will ultimately lead to the death of the hospital.

The turnout exceeded the expectations of the organisers and gives a clear indication of the local strength of feeling on the subject. An independent review of the proposal is being undertaken at the moment and we can only hope that the new SNP administration in the Scottish Parliament pays more than lip service to listening to the wishes of the people.

Still A Political Football

Patricia Hewitt is an idiot in so many ways. My spirits picked up a little when I heard last year that Gordon Brown was said to favour handing over day-to-day control of the NHS to an independent board - in the same way he gave up control of interest rates to the Bank of England in 1997. At last, I thought, I might work for an organisation that is run by people who have some idea what they are talking about instead of suffering the consequences of being run by feeble-minded politicians who have no experience of the NHS, either as managers or, in many cases, as consumers. In my experience, politicians often have poorly thought-through ideas that seem to be based on gaining short-term popularity through headlines in the tabloid press.

According to this article, however, that plan has fallen out of favour. I note Hewitt's comments about the putative benefits of "competitive pressure" within the NHS, but I would like to see the evidence for such benefits especially outwith major cities, IE in places where the local hospital has no effective competitor.

Hewitt is said to back an NHS constitution, which could cover behaviour expected of NHS patients and people's personal responsibility for their own health. This is another area where political rule falls down. It's not exactly a vote-winner to tell people that they should be more responsible in the use of the service.

It seems Hewitt is likely to go when Brown takes over the helm, but it appears that the poor staff of the NHS will continue to work for a "polical football".

What's In A Name?

I was fascinated today to read that Google.org has appointed a new executive director who goes by the name of, would you believe, Dr Brilliant! I hadn't previously heard of Larry Brilliant but, as befits his name, dear Larry is a veritable polymath: "a medical doctor, epidemiologist, technologist, author and philanthropist" according to his Wikipedia entry. I'm not sure I would have wanted to go through life called Mr (or Dr) Brilliant. The name would certainly create certain expectations among one's contemporaries that might prove difficult to meet. However, maybe having a name like that gives one a certain self-confidence that others find elusive?

One of the "chosen ones" in the new UK government under Gordon Brown rejoices in the name Ed Balls. I can't imagine growing up in the West of Scotland with a name like that. I suspect it would have been a pretty painful experience. Having a somewhat provocative name does not seem to have hampered Ed's progress though life. He's certainly a rising star just now. Here we see the nice Mr Balls talking about his efforts to help disabled children.

Sometimes tell-tale names can be a bit more subtle, though. It took us years to notice that Blair was an anagram of "B liar", for example....

A Threat We Must Ignore

I note that Abdalla El-Badri, who is the secretary-general of Opec (the oil cartel), has stated that investment in biofuels could push oil prices "through the roof". If that isn't a threat, I don't know what is.

Opec members control about 40% of the world's oil production, and El-Badri warns that moves to use biofuels would make his members consider cutting investment in new oil production.

This sort of rhetoric demonstrates the ridiculous position we have got ourself into with our worrying dependence on fossil fuels. The only way out of this, in the long term, is to expand the use of alternative fuel sources.

We cannot afford to be bullied by international gangsters like this.

Where Have All The Heroes Gone?

Where Have All The Heroes Gone?
Originally uploaded by Son of Groucho.

One of the places we visited in our recent wee trip to Paris was the Hotel des Invalides. This amazing building was constructed by Louis XIV in the 1670s as a residential village for up to 4000 invalides (disabled veterans) who were begging in the streets of Paris. The courtyard is now used for military parades. Behind the four-storey classical facade is the Dome Church (Eglise du Dome). Les Invalides was built between 1677 and 1735: the dome took 27 years to build.

The Eglise du Dome now houses the Tomb of Napoleon. His remains are encased in 5 coffins and a sarcophagus of red porphyry. The church also contains the tomb of Ferdinand Foch (see above), and the rather beautiful tomb of Hubert Lyautey. I had never heard of the latter, but I like his tomb, and I'd quite like mine to be similar (Wosog please note).

My point is this: can you think of a single modern politician, or military leader, in the world today that would be so revered by their public that the latter would support a memorial of this magnitude? I can't. Maybe this is just a cynical age, and we all look too readily for less-than-altruistic motivation behind the actions of our leaders? Maybe it will take a truly global conflict (God forbid) to bring forward men of true stature? I don't know, but I do know for certain that there would be a huge public outcry in the UK if it was proposed that any of our current so-called leaders, or indeed former prime ministers, be immortalised in this way.

Where have all the heroes gone?

My Political Compass

My Political Compass
Originally uploaded by Son of Groucho.

Thanks to Birdman for pointing me in the direction of this site that claims to be able to analyse your political position based on a detailed questionnaire.

I'm in the same quadrant as Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama: not too bad company!

Why don't you give it a go?

Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime?

I’ve always tended to avoid debt. I’m not much of a risk-taker. With this in mind, I was interested to read this Times Online article about The USA’s National Debt. Apparently, Congress has agreed to allow the Government to borrow another $781 billion (£447 billion), increasing the national debt limit — the maximum America can borrow — from $8 trillion and $184 billion to $8 trillion and $961 billion.

This is quite a lot of dosh:

• Enough to buy Buckingham Palace 9000 times (as if you would want to)


• Enough to give every person on the planet $1500.00 (a fortune to many, small change to some)


• Enough to build 28 solid gold Eiffel Towers (another pointless exercise)


• Enough to solve the Palestinian crisis by rehousing every Israeli and Palestinian family in a £1.5m detached house in Henley-on-Thames (Interesting, but they’d probably still bicker over the relative sizes of their swimming pools etc).

Anyway, what do you think would be the best use of $9 trillion?

Political Animals

Hasn't it been fascinating watching the squirming machinations of the Liberal Democrat Party in the run-up to the resignation of Charles Kennedy from their leadership. I, and many others, had always thought of the Lib-Dems as "The Nice Party" full of lovely, reasonable people with sensible, inoffensive policies that seemed so attractive in opposition, but which many felt would prove totally unworkable in the unlikely event that they ever became the party in power. One thing was sure, we thought, these pleasant people would never "kick a guy when he was down" in the manner that the Tories savaged Margaret Thatcher (the first politician I cared enough about to despise).

Well we were wrong: the Lib-Dems can be just as nasty as any of the rest, but wasn't it funny watching them try to retain the "moral high ground"? I see from the Wikipedia article that Charles, who graduated from the University of Glasgow the same year as I did, intends to stay in the party, and that there is already press speculation that he may return to the leadership of the Lib-Dems at some stage!

Really, who would want to lead this bunch of hypocritical non-entities?

Glasgow Vandalism

I note that the statue of Donald Dewar, the late First Minister, has been returned to its previous situation near the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. As you can see from this BBC article, the statue has been vandalised on several occasions since it was erected in 2002. The powers that be have now put dear old Donald on top of a 6' high plinth in the naive belief that this will deter the vandals.

The "high heedyins" should really learn from the experience of the Duke of Wellington's statue outside the Gallery of Modern Art. Despite numerous attempts to remove it, certain individuals persist in putting a traffic cone on top of the Duke's head. Why they choose to do this nobody knows, but I think it has now been accepted as a permanent feature!

Glasgow is one of the friendliest cities that I know. The people there are welcoming, and always willing to help visitors to the city. However, if there is one thing that Glaswegians can't stand it is pompous people who take themselves too seriously. As politicians go, Donald Dewar was a nice enough guy whose death at the age of 63 seemed a bit premature. His major role in achieving devolution for Scotland does make him a hero in some people's eyes. However, for those who consider the whole devolution project, including the Scottish Parliament Building, to be an expensive waste of time, Dewar is something less than a hero.

Is it any wonder then that this blatant attempt to make Dewar seem like some sort of demi-god is like a red rag to a bull to some people? I would remind the Lord Provost that we have some very skilled climbers in Scotland. Why doesn't she ask the Duke of Wellington?

1984 Revisited

I read about this plan some time ago, but a post on Boing Boing directed me to this Independent Online article about it. Apparently, as from next year the UK will have the dubious distinction of being the first country in the world where every car journey will be monitored, logged and the details stored for at least 2 years. We all think this is a good idea, don’t we? And we all remember voting for it, don’t we? Personally, I don’t remember voting for the “pleasure” of living in a Police State where I can’t drive anywhere without the details being stored in the Thought Police’s Central Computer for God-knows-who to access?

But apparently this is just the beginning! Once these sinister characters iron out the technical difficulties of automatic face recognition we can look forward to our every movement being monitored, even when we’re not in our cars!

The Police and the Security Services argue that technology such as this will make their jobs easier. They will have much less difficulty not just tracking down people who don’t buy tax discs for their cars, and don’t insure their vehicles, but other much more sinister individuals. They will no doubt trot out the old argument that “if you’ve got nothing to hide, you shouldn’t mind being watched”. They’ll tell us that the overall aim of systems such as this is to make the public feel safer.

Well I’m one of the public, and proposals such as this don’t make me feel safer. They make me feel sadder, and they make me feel resentful that my civil liberties are being eroded significantly without adequate consultation. As far as I can see the car monitoring system is all set to go ahead, so who knows what else Big Brother has planned for us “for our own good”. As far as I’m concerned, if this is the way British society has to go to combat terrorism, the terrorists have already won the war.

When is a door not a door?

There's nothing more satisfying than watching pompous politicians of any party being shown for the asses they really are. This BBC page has a link to a hilarious video clip of George Bush trying to effect a dignified escape from an irritating press conference in China....and failing miserably!

I could just watch it again and again! The still from the video is a joy too.

Alas Poor George!

It's not been a good week for poor George Bush with his close chums being accused of various dirty tricks: nothing to do with George himself, of course. Then there's the small matter of all those US troops returning from Iraq in body bags.

Like many senior politicians, Bush's ability to be elsewhere when the shit hits the proverbial fan is impressive, but maybe one day he will finally be knocked off his perch (thanks to Octupus Dropkick).